Konor Campaign Battle Report 4

Well, the local gaming store that I went to dangerously swung under the influence of Chaos during the weekend. As a loyal servant of the Imperium and a faithful crusader of the Omnissiah, I set out to make that right. I actually planned on delivering vengeance to the Omnissiah's enemies yesterday, but I fell sick. Thankfully, thanks to the grace of the Emperor, I recovered today and made the trip down to my local gaming store.

I brought my Imperial Knights...cough, but obviously I didn't use them. The only reason why I brought them along was because I was clearing out my locker in the other local gaming store and getting ready to bring my Knights to the United States. Oh, and I told my friend to sell all my Imperial Guard stuff except my Shadowsword. I'll be getting a new Imperial Guard army next year when I return. Hopefully he gets some good cash for my Imperial Guard guys. And my Knight Crusader. I'm not crazy enough to play 4 Knights...might as well sell off the Knight Crusader. I mean, nobody will play against 4 Imperial Knights. Nobody.

Not sure what I'm going to do about my Shadowsword though. Maybe get Malefic Lords from Renegades and Heretics and ally it to a new Thousand Sons army. Or I'll get 5 Primaris Psykers to spam Smite. We shall see. Anyway, that's neither here nor there. Let's get on to the actual Battle Report!

I dropped in all of a sudden and I managed to convince a bunch of people to play. We ended up doing a 2v2 battle with power rating of 50 for each player (so 100 per side). Sounds good to me.

Our opponents were Death Guard and a bunch of corrupted Tau who decided to fall under the influence of Chaos for some reason (gah, who cares? Just assume they're anti-Imperium and their attacks coincide with the Death Guard). The Death Guard player brought a squad of 7 Plague Marines as Troops, a Plaguecaster as his HQ, a Hellbrute with twin lascannons, a Chaos Predator with twin lascannons, heavy bolters and havoc launcher and a Chaos Land Raider with 2 twin lascannons, heavy bolters and havoc launcher. It turned out to be a patrol detachment, so no command benefits for him.

The Death Guard and all their tanks and heavy armor!

The Tau player brought a lot of stuff. First he brought Commander Farsight, who for some reason had fallen to Chaos and was beseiging Konor (uh, what?). Accompanying him is Longshot, the dude in the Hammerhead. Wait, since when was Longshot a comrade of Farsight? Never mind. Then 3 squads of 5 Fire Warriors, 1 squad of 5 Pathfinders, a bunch of gun drones and shield drones, which totalled to 8 drones, 3 Crisis Suits with 2 flamers and 4 plasma rifles and...that's about it. That was a Battalion detachment, so 3 extra Command Points for the enemy team!

On the side of the Imperium was a Ynnari Vanguard detachment - my ally. Paralleling Belisarius Cawl's alliance with the Ynnari and Harlequins in Fall of Cadia and the Gathering Storm thing, the Ynnari and Adeptus Mechanicus have once again banded together to fight the Great Enemy. My teammate brought a Farseer on a bike, a Warlock also on a bike, 2 squads of 5 Wraithguards - one with D-scythes and the other with D-cannons or whatever those Wraithguard 12" weapons are called, 1 squad of Wraithblades with shields, and finally a Harlequin Solitaire who was pretty awesome. No kidding. He is awesome.

Rounding up the forces of the Imperium was my household of Imperial Knights...cough, I mean Adeptus Mechanicus forces. No Imperial Knights this time folks. I'm scaring my opponents away with them. So instead I brought a Spearhead Detachment. My HQ was the Tech-priest Dominus, and he was accompanied by a Cybernetica Datasmith babysitting 4 Kastelan Robots with 3 heavy phospohor blasters each, and 3 Onager Dunecrawlers. As usual, I brought 2 neutron lasers and 1 Icarus array. Since it was power rating rather than points, I decided to buy extra Cognis heavy stubbers for my neutron laser Onager Dunecrawlers. Thanks to that we have 2 extra Command Points.

Adeptus Mechanicus Spearhead Detachment!

So we deployed, and the corrupted Tau failed to seize, rolling a 1. That's what happens when you consort of unholy powers!

Turn 1

My ally and I moved our units up, but somehow my Onager Dunecrawler with Icarus array still wasn't within range of Longshot (or was it Longstrike?) because the Tau dude had put him way, way back in their deployment zone. My teammate decided to blitz her Solitaire forward, and she rolled a 1. Ugh. But then she used a Command Point and blitzed a 5 this time - worth spending those Command Points. The Solitaire ended up right in front of the Tau Fire Warriors and Plague Marines. Her Wraithguard and Wraithblades, with the former's ridiculously short range, couldn't do much but move and advance. Only 2 of her Wraithguard were within range of the Plague Marines, but I think they fluffed their shots because of the -1 penalty to assault weapons when advancing. Too bad.

Oh, and in the psychic phase, I think she casted Doom on the Plague Marines or something, but it didn't work because she missed her shots. On the other hand, she buffed her Wraithguard and Farseer, forcing the opponent to -1 to their shots against them. There was one other power she casted, but I think she failed the psychic test.

Then came the shooting phase. And Adeptus Mechanicus shooting phase is devastating.

My Onager Dunecrawler didn't do much with his neutron laser against the Land Raider. I think I failed to wound it. Ouch. And that was after rolling a 1 with the D3 shots, so...yeah. Bad, bad rolls. My Cognis heavy stubber shots also didn't do much to the Plague Marines. The 2nd Onager Dunecrawler couldn't see the Land Raider, so he fired at the Plague Marines instead. The Cognis heavy stubbers, as usual, did f all, but the neutron laser took out at least 2 of the Plague Marines, reducing them to 5.

The Onager Dunecrawler with Icarus array was out of range for Longshot, so he targeted the Crisis suits instead. Thanks to Crisis suits having Fly but no supersonic, he hit them on a 2+. I wiped out about 3 drones and put 2 wounds on a Crisis suit. I think.

Then my Kastelan Robots fired. 2 of them fired at the Pathfinders and wiped them out. First Blood! The other 2 Kastelan Robots fired at a squad of Fire Warriors and annihilated them. 2 units wiped out in our first turn, netting us 2 victory points...which doubled to 4 because my Kastelan Robots have a 3+ armor save.

Deployment - the Adpetus Mechanicus is the hammer and the Ynnari the anvil!

The Solitare then charged the Fire Warriors hiding up a building with the Plague Marines. She actually wanted to charge him into the Plague Marines, but then her Solitaire would have to eat overwatches from three units. As it was, she decided to charge the Fire Warriors, so only the Crisis suits fired overwatched thanks to supporting fire rule. The Solitaire managed to survive the flamer shots and the plasma rifle and pulse rifle shots missed. He took only one wound, but my teammate went and spent 3 command points to make sure he re-rolled those 3 failed saves to reduce that to 1 wound. He then blitzed into the Fire Warrior squad, only to fluff most of his attacks and only kill a mere 3 Fire Warriors despite having 8 attacks. Ouch.

Our opponents then did a lot of stuff, having the Fire Warriors fall back, the Crisis suits move up, the Land Raider move a bit forward, the Predator deeper into cover, and the Helbrute up. Oh, and Farsight jumped all the way forward, and his shield drones joined the gun drones that I massacred earlier during my turn.

Our opponents rolled pretty poorly. The psychic phase was a disaster for them, and my opponent spent a couple of command points to re-roll them. He succeeded in casting the same -1 to To Hit rolls buff on his Chaos Predator, and despite successfully casting Smite on the Solitaire, my teammate made her Deny the Witch rolls and countered it. Ouch. Despite Longstrike being BS2+, he rolled a 1 to hit, and then despite spending a command point to re-roll it, rolled a 1 again. Ouch. That's what you get for consorting with fell powers. The Plague Marine with a plasma gun overcharged and fired on my Kastelan Robot, prompting my teammate to laugh at the Death Guard player for living dangerously. Fortunately, he didn't roll a 1, and even made a hit. Unfortunately, he rolled a 1 for his To Wound roll and failed to wound my Kastelan Robot. Heh. Farsight killed a Kastelan Robot with his fusion blaster - despite Aegis Protocols helping me make 2 of my 3 invulnerable save, he rolled a 6 for the D6 damage, and one Kastelan Robot died immediately. Ouch. The smart missile system on the Hammerhead, heavy bolters from the Chaos Predator and Land Raider, and pulse rifle from the 3rd Fire Warrior squad killed about 1 Wraithblades and 1 or 2 Wraithguard (I think). The lascannons from the Hellbrute, Chaos Predator and Chaos Land Raider killed a 2nd Kastelan Robot (ouch) and knocked 2 wounds off a third. That was extremely painful. I was weeping over my fallen Cybernetica constructs.

The Commander Farsight then charged the Solitaire, and...the Solitaire passed all his invulnerable saves. The Plague Marines also charged the Solitaire and despite dealing 3 wounds, the Solitaire's superhuman reflexes kept him alive. I told you the guy is amazing. His 3+ invulnerable just kicks ass. Then he fought back and put 3 wounds on Commander Farsight. He is one brutal combatant in melee. Heh.

Turn 2

The Wraithblades continued to move and advance, and the Wraithguard also moved, but only the ones with D-Scythes advanced because they're still out of range. I moved only my Onager Dunecrawlers so that they can see the Chaos Land Raider while my Icarus array Onager Dunecrawler tried to get closer to Longstrike, but I was still barely out of range. No matter. Oh, and I rolled a 4 for the D3 wounds, so I could heal the 2 wounds on my wounded Kastelan Robot and restored him back to full health. Yay!

My teammate fluffed her psychic phase and I don't think any spells went off. In fact, the Warlock went and perils himself and suffered 1 or 2 wounds. Ouch. The Farseer also fluffed his psychic spell, but he successfully cast Smite, only for a drone to successfully intercept the mortal wound (because it apparently counts as Feel No Pain and so can be used to save against mortal wounds). With the psychic phase ending in disaster, we decided to open fire.

Using a combination of the shuriken cannon on the bikes, the Farseer and Warlock, along with the first Wraithguard squad with the 12" cannons killed a bunch of drones and erased a unit (one unit of drones was with the Crisis suits, and a separate unit was with the Crisis suits). That allowed her to soulburst her Wraithguard and shoot even more stuff, reducing the unit to just one drone and one or two Crisis suits. I can't remember if she succeeded in killing one or two Crisis suits.

With that done, I fired on the Crisis suits, and surprisingly enough, he failed a one save against my Cognis heavy stubber shots, and took a wound. Wow. The Icarus array did the rest, killing the drone and then wiping out the Crisis suit team for good. This allowed my teammate to use Soulburst again, and her Solitaire fought as if in the Fight Phase, and put another wound on Farsight. He, uh, fluffed his To Wound rolls. Ouch.

The Onager Dunecrawlers then fired their 2 neutron lasers on the Chaos Land Raider, and I think I only managed to take out 6 wounds in total? I can't remember. It was either 3 or 6, because I rolled pretty badly. On the other hand, my surviving Kastelan Robots fired and erased the 3rd Fire Warrior squad.

The Solitaire then killed Farsight in combat in the normal fight phase. Good thing my teammate soulburst earlier because Farsight failed exactly 2 of his saves - just barely enough to kill him. The Plague Marines then swung at the Solitaire with their power fists and plague knives, but despite hitting, the Harlequin nimbly jumped out of the way and made all his invulnerable saves. Good man. I think he still had 2 wounds left or so. Not bad.

Unfortunately, his luck eventually ran out when the Plaguecaster casted Smite on him and did the 2 mortal wounds needed to take him out. Poor guy. We'll always remember you and your bravery on the battlefield, taking on a squad of Fire Warriors, braving the overwatch of Crisis suits, besting Commander Farsight in combat and surviving a rampage from Plague Marines.

The Adeptus Mechanicus forces continue to stand strong over the forge world of Konor!

The shooting, thankfully, was less brutal now that there were so little Tau Empire left. The Plague Marines fell back so that they could shoot the Solitaire, but that was moot now that the Plaguecaster had Smote him with mortal wounds. Either way, they couldn't shoot. Longstrike took a potshot at my Onager Dunecrawler and hit with his BS 2+, only to fail to Wound...because he rolled a 1 to wound even though he only needed a 2+ to wound. Just not his lucky day, is it?

I can't remember, but the havoc launchers, the smart missile system, the heavy bolters took out another Wraithblade and wounded a Wraithguard, but that's all they did. My teammate still had 3 Wraithblades remaining and 4 Wraithguard, I think. The lascannons did more damage, but thanks to me deciding to stick to Aegis Protocols instead of switching over to Protector Protocols, I managed to make a couple of saves against the lascannons and even reflected a shot with the Repulsor Grid and did a single mortal wound to the Chaos Land Raider. Way to go! But he eventually took 3 wounds, which was 1 more than the wound he took last turn. I think that was all our opponents were able to do.

Turn 3

The Wraithblades continued their steady advance up the table toward Longstrike, while the Wraithguard moved closer to the Plague Marines and the Deathguard. Once again, the Farseer and Warlock fluffed their psychic phase, rolling 1s and 2s and failing to pull a power off. Psychic extraordinaires they are not. Oh well.

On the other hand, the Farseer was much better at shooting. While the Warlock failed to kill the 2 remaining Fire Warriors in that squad the Solitaire charged in Turn 1, the Farseer killed them both and allowed the Wraithguard to Soulburst. The Wraithguard actually fired their D-scythes first and did 15 auto-hits and 11 wounds. The Death Guard player made some 6+ armor saves (with cover bonus), and then made about 6 or 7 Disgustingly Resilient saves, which meant he only lost 2 Plague Marines to the initial volley. However, the Soulburst allowed the Wraithguard to fire a second salvo, and even though their only did 10 auto-hits and 9 wounds this time, they finally succeeded in wiping out the Plague Marines. I think the other 4 Wraithguard also took shots at them. I can't remember. Anyway, we wiped out both the Plague Marines and all 3 Fire Warrior squads by then.

With nothing else in range, I had both my Onager Dunecrawlers fire their neutron lasers on the Chaos Land Raider and took out another 7 wounds. With nothing to lose (and nothing else to shoot at), I fired my cognis heavy stubbers - 12 shots - and I actually put a wound on the Chaos Land Raider when he rolled a 1. That left the Chaos Land Raider with 1 or 2 wounds left, I believe. My Kastelan Robots then fired at him to finish him off, and they actually succeeded despite being on Aegis Protocols and not Protector Protocols. The Land Raider blew up - the Death Guard opponent rolled a 6, but thankfully it seemed nobody was within range to catch the blast...I think? The nearest unit was the Chaos Predator, but it was further than 6" away.

By this time, the opponent's side of the table is looking really empty. Nah, the photograph is in the wrong chronological order because I should have 2 Kastelan Robots dead by this turn. Sorry.

At that point, our opponents called it. We were leading by 19 victory points and they only had 2 from killing a solitary Solitaire. The Tau opponent only had one unit left - Longstrike/Longshot in his Hammerhead. The Chaos guy fared better - he only lost his Plague Marines and Chaos Land Raider, but still had his Plaguecaster, Chaos Predator and Helbrute in play. But they seem to think they wouldn't be able to make the difference, not with the Wraithguards inexorably advancing on the Helbrute and Chaos Predator and the Wraithblades nearing the Hammerhead. Plus I still had 3 Onager Dunecrawlers and 2 Kastelan Robots. So they decided to concede because they knew they couldn't catch up.

I asked them to allow me one last shot since the Icarus array hadn't fired yet, to see if I could kill Longstrike. They good-naturedly allowed me to do so, and despite the Icarus array's devastating...uh array of weaponry, I only put about 7 wounds on the guy, leaving him with just 4. Oh well. Still not too bad. After that, the Chaos forces withdrew and it became an Imperial victory. Or combined Imperial and Ynnari victory. Thanks to our mysterious Ynnari allies, the Adeptus Mechanicus Skitarii and Cybernetica legions of forge world Draconis IV have successfully defended Konor! Let it not be said that we don't help our priestly brothers from other forge worlds! (even brought Imperial Knights to help, but the Emperor decided to be merciful to the Great Enemy - know his holy benevolence!)

Thanks to that, the balance at the local gaming store swung back toward the Imperium! For the Emperor! The Omnissiah be praised! Woohoo! Konor is safe! Or so I hope...there's still 1 day and 14 hours left...brr...I hope my victories made a difference in the imperial war effort to liberate Konor from the forces of Chaos!