Crushing defeat

Well, finally I played against a proper opponent who has the right tools to deal with Imperial Knights, and my mighty list crashed into a massive defeat.

Yeah, I finally managed to get a game at Dreamers Vault in Minneapolis, Hiawatha Avenue. I played against a great guy with a great Tau army. Well, I spent the first hour watching him crush a new player who used Orks. It was a fun battle, but the new player made a few tactical mistakes that saw him tabled before he could kill a single unit. Well, he killed a squad of Fire Warriors...I think.

Basically, the Ork player had a bunch of Boyz in 2 Battlewagons, 3 Trukks, and a squad of Nobs in one Trukk, along with a Painboy and Ghazghul. You know, the guy who's forever fighting Lord Commissar Yarrick on Armageddon before Chaos came in and took over. He had 20 Boyz in each of the Battlewagons, apparently.

The opponent brought 3 5-men squads of Fire Warriors, 2 squads of 3 Crisis Suits, a Crisis Commander (or 2 of them, I can't remember), Farsight and the 8, 2 squads of 10 Pathfinders, a bunch of Shield Drones, Markerlight Drones and Gun Drones, and a Stormsurge. Needless to say, he wrecked the Battlewagons, killed the Boyz and uh, killed Ghazghul with overwatch when the Ork Warboss charged the Stormsurge. Holy...

Poor kid. He never stood a chance.

I wanted to play against that list. It didn't matter if I lost. I saw how strong it was and I wanted to learn. And I did learn a lot from the game today. I brought my usual army of 3 Imperial Knights, and a Patrol Detachment of a Tech-priest Dominus, a 50-men Skitarii squad, a Cybernetica Datasmith and 3 Kastelan robots.

The first turn started out well enough for me. I got first blood when I erased a squad of Pathfinders with combined shooting from my Knight Warden's Avenger Gatling cannon and Kastelan robots' heavy phosphor blasters, put several wounds on the Stormsurge with my Knight Errant's thermal cannon and Knight Paladin's Stormspear rocket pod, killed about 3 Fire Warriors with my Knight Paladin's rapid-fire battle cannon, and that was it.

Then came the deep strike. The Crisis suits, Farsight and the 8 crashed down in front of my Knight Errant and obliterated him. In one turn, I lost a single Knight. Ouch. The Knight Warden was reduced to 4 wounds from just a bunch of fusion blaster shots. Ouch. I basically lost a Knight in one turn. Almost two, actually.

I tried to salvage what I could with my remaining Knights, killing a squad of 3 Crisis suits, lots of Drones, and a squad of Fire Warriors with my Kastelan Robots. My Knight Paladin killed 4 Pathfinders, and I think that's about it. I tried to charge with my Knight Warden, but the Crisis suits blew him up on overwatch with their fusion blasters. In just 2 turns I lost 2 Knights. Ouch.

Then I lost my Knight Paladin to the Crisis suits and the Stormsurge. I have nothing more to add.

We played on, with me trying to salvage something with my Kastelan Robots. I killed another 2 Crisis Suits and a couple of Drones with them, but failed to do anything else. Then my opponent advanced with his Crisis Suits and utterly wrecked my Kastelan Robots, killing all 3 of them in one round of shooting. I fluffed my invulnerable saves. I don't think I even made one of them. The Stormsurge then killed my Tech-priest Dominus and 2 o my Skitarii Vanguard.

At that point, the game ended. I had nothing but a single Cybernetica Datasmith and 3 Skitarii Vanguard left, so I couldn't do anything. Oh well. I was all but tabled by Turn 4.

This was a humbling experience, but I'm actually quite pleased. First, it proves that Imperial Knights are not overpowered. Second, I learned a lot from this game, and it was fun to play against an opponent who didn't get steamrolled by my Knights for once. Sure, I was crushed one-sidedly, but I'm sure I'll be able to play better next time. I'll be facing him again on Monday, and this time I'll bring Onager Dunecrawlers instead of Kastelan robots. Maybe they will fare better with their Icarus arrays. We shall see.