About My Blog

Ave Omnissiah!

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My blog is primarily my own personal fluff in the Warhammer 40,000 universe regarding the Draconis system such as the Knight House Yato in Ryusei, their Household Militia, the Draconian Defenders, and the Forge World of Draconis IV with its Adeptus Mechanicus priesthood, Cybernetica cohorts and Skitarii legions, and the Titan Legion, Legio Draconis, known as the Dark Dragons.

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Retrospective: Imperial Knights

Today, we're going to a Retrospective on...Imperial Knights! I mean, this is primarily an Imperial Knight blog, so obviously if I'm ...

Friday, December 29, 2017

Tzeentch

As a future Thousand Sons player, I'll be keeping my eyes on all things Tzeentch (Warhammer 40,000 anyway, which was why I didn't cover the Disciples of Tzeentch in January almost a year ago) and monitoring them. I have half a mind to incude Tzeentch Daemons in my Thousand Sons army because of how limited a model range we have. Rubric Marines, Scarab Occult Terminators Exalted Sorcerers, Tzaangors and named Characters (Ahzek Ahriman and Magnus the Red). That means we potentially only have 4 normal units and 6 types, 2 of which are unique and can only be fielded one per army.

In other words, the Death Guard has gotten a lot more love than we did. Lord of Contagion, Malignant Plaguecaster, Plague Marines, Poxwalkers, Plaguebearers (I don't know if Plaguebearers are in the Chaos Daemons codex), Noxious Blightbringer, Foul Blightspawn, Biologus Putrifier, Plague Surgeon, Tallyman, Deathshroud Terminators, Blightlord Terminators, Beasts of Nurgle (again, not sure if it's Death Guard exclusive or a Chaos Daemon port), Foetid Bloat-drone, Myphitic Blight-haulers, Plague Drones, Plagueburst Crawler, and then you have Typhus and Mortarion. That's about 17 (15 if you remove the Chaos Daemons) normal units and 19 (17 if you remove the Chaos Daemons) exclusive Death Guard units. They have almost 4 times the types of units we have, it's crazy!

So what's a Thousand Son player to do to add a bit of diversity to his Thousand Sons army? Bring in Tzeentch Daemons as allies, of course! Unfortunately, while I was amazed by the Locus of the other Chaos Gods, Tzeentch's fell flat for me.



Oh boy. This is too reliant on luck and I have terrible luck. I'm pretty much screwed if I rely on this. I would almost prefer to switch allegiance for extra damage, re-rolls for charges or advance and charge than something that is so luck-based it's ridiculous. I would prefer a straight -1 to their hit rolls, for Tzeentch's sake!

I pray to the Emperor (committing foul heresy here I know) that this is not the only Locus we have, and that we have more Locus and more options, otherwise Tzeentch Daemons would be screwed. I mean, I'm not saying this is garbage - far from it - but it's too unreliable for my taste, and I actually prefer the other Daemon Loci. Not a good thing if I want to stay fluffy and thematic.

Oh well. It's still a long way before the Thousand Sons codex drop. Maybe I'll wait and see, we might get a whole range of units like the Death Guard did, and I can field a pure Thousand Sons army without relying on Daemons (would be great if I field Brimstone Horrors as Troops though).

Monday, December 25, 2017

Imperial Guard versus Adeptus Mechanicus Battle Report

First of all, Merry Christmas, everyone!

As a Christmas present (not really), here's a battle report! Yesterday, I managed to get a game against a friend who I sold my Adeptus Mechanicus stuff too (I only kept the Tech-priests Dominus and Tech-priest Enginseer because I wanted to do a Legio Cybernetica army from forge world). It was great to see my Kataphron Destroyers and Oanger Dunecrawlers again, but he opted not to use his Kastelan Robots.

Basically, his Adeptus Mechanicus list looked like this:

Belisarius Cawl (not the Warlord), a Tech-priest Enginseeer (the Warlord) with Autocaduceus of Arkhan Land and the Monitor Malevolus Warlord Trait, 2 squads of 3 Kataphron Destroyers with plasma culverins and cognis flamers, 1 squad of 4 Kataphron Breachers with heavy arc rifles, 3 Onager Dunecrawlers - 1 with Icarus array and 2 with neutron lasers, 1 squad of 15 Corpuscarii Electro-priests, and a single Knight Paladin with twin Icarus autocannons. Scary. Really scary. I was so scared I broke down and cried, praying to the Emperor.

No, of course not. Instead, I brought out my standard Imperial Guard list and relied on my faith in the Emperor. So my Imperial Guard list looked like this:

Draconian (Cadian) Spearhead Detachment Tank Commander – Leman Russ Executioner with lascannon and plasma cannons 237 Leman Russ Executioner with lascannon and plasma cannons 192 Leman Russ Annihilator with lascannon and plasma cannons 212 2 Wyverns with heavy bolters 206 Total: 847, 1 Command Point Draconian (Cadian) Supreme Command Detachment Primaris Psyker 46 Primaris Psyker 46 Company Commander with plasma pistol 35 Command squad with 4 plasma guns 76 Shadowsword with 3 twin heavy bolters and 2 lascannons 472 Total: 675, 1 Command Point Kamikaze Troopers (Militarum Tempestus/Stormtrooper) Vanguard Detachment Tempestor Prime with bolt pistol and power sword 45 Tempestor Prime with bolt pistol and power sword 45 Militarum Tempestus command squad with 4 plasma guns 88 Militarum Tempestus command squad with 4 plasma guns 88 Tech-priest Enginseer 42 Valkyrie with lascannon, 2 multiple rocket pods and 2 heavy bolters 168 Total: 476, 1 Command Points Grand Total: 1,998, 6 Command Points

We played 2 Maelstrom missions.

Game One

The first one was the tactical kill mission where we generated up to 3 tactical objectives per turn. My opponent seized the initiative after losing the roll to start first (despite the +1), and he proceeded to beat down on me. Basically, his Knight wounded my poor Wyvern, bringing him down to 4-5 wounds (I think?). I just remember that he was in his second profile. His Onager Dunecrawler with Icarus array put a couple of wounds on my Valkyrie (as did the Knight Paladin's Icarus autocannons), but most of his guys were out of range to do anything. Unfortunately, the 2 Onager Dunecrawlers with the neutron lasers put about 10 wounds on my Shadowsword. But he failed to kill anything, and he needed to defend Objective 2 (I believe) for 2 consecutive turns. His other objectives were to kill a psyker and to destroy an enemy vehicle without it blowing up (Destroy and Acquire). So...no go there.

I also had an objective that required me to secure Objective 4 for 2 consecutive turns or something, and I have a Leman Russ tank sitting right on it (Objective Secured Leman Russ tanks for the win!). Unfortunately, I also had 2 other Objectives that I needed to secure and none of them were in my deployment zone, and one of them was right in enemy territory. Frak my life.

It didn't matter. I put at least 14 wounds on his Knight Paladin with my Shadowsword and Leman Russ Annihilator, and then wounded the 2 Onager Dunecrawlers with neutron lasers while repairing my Shadowsword to 7-8 wounds or so. Despite throwing so much plasma at them, the Onager Dunecrawlers refused to go down. Ugh. It also helped that they had the 5++ invulnerable save. I had my Kamikaze Troopers Deep Strike right behind enemy lines, behind Objective 5, in order to clear the Kataphron Breachers sitting on it and claim it, but obviously the 9" rule didn't help. My Valkyrie also flew forward to drop my 2 Primaris Psykers, my plasma command squad and company commander. The first Primaris Psyker got off his Smite and did a couple of wounds to a Kataphron Destroyer, but didn't kill him. The second Primaris Psyker...failed his smite. Ouch. Oh well. Anyway, the plasma squad opened up and managed to kill about 1 Kataphron Destroyer. Funnily enough, my Company Commander killed the wounded Kataphron Destroyer (the one who got Smited) with his plasma pistol (I didn't overcharge). Phew. So each squad of Kataphron Destroyers only had 2 each. Meanwhile, at the back, my Kamikaze Troopers opened up and killed all 4 Kataphron Breachers with their supercharged plasma guns. Nice! My Wyverns opened up and killed about 7 Electro-Priests - could have been more, but my 1st Wyvern was firing on his 2nd profile after having been wounded. Ouch. My Valkyrie fired on his Kataphron Destroyers but didn't do more than 1 or 2 wounds.

At least I got First Blood. So 1 point for me.

The second turn was more brutal. For some reason, my opponent had his Knight retreat to the back, but moved his Electro-priests toward my Kamikaze Troopers. He used the Wrath of Mars Stratagem and had his Electro-priests wipe out both my Kamikaze command squads with mortal wounds - splitting up 6 on one and 3 on one. It didn't matter, with their taser "3 hits on rolls of 6s" and mortal wounds from Wrath of Mars (I honestly think he's wasting it on these guys), both plasma Kamikaze command squads were dead.

The Knight fired on my Wyvern, but failed to kill it, only putting about 2-3 wounds on him. Ouch. Poor Wyvern was left with exactly 1 wound left. He also had his Onager Dunecrawlers fire on my Shadowsword, bringing him down to 8 wounds and putting him in the second profile. Meanwhile, the Onager Dunecrawler with Icarus array and the Knight's Icarus autocannons fired on my Valkyrie, and again, brought him down to less than half his health. About 6 wounds? I can't remember. Anyway, the Kataphron Destroyers fired their plasma culverins and killed my plasma command squad, and their cognis flamers killed the first primaris psyker and company commander. The nearest 2 Kataphron Destroyers then charged the second, surviving primaris psyker, while the electro-priests charged the 1st Tempestor Prime. While my primaris psyker survived, the Tempestor Prime didn't, getting wiped out by the electro-priests in combat. Hilariously enough, my opponent charged his Tech-priest Enginseer Warlord into my 2nd Tempestor Prime, failed one of his hits, and then failed to wound with the other hit. I swung back and actually did one wound with his power sword. Surprising.

My opponent got the Defend Objective 2 for 2 turns, earning 2 points, and another point for killing my first Primaris Psyker, so he had a total of 3 points. The score was 3-1 in his favor so far.

In my turn, I finally took out the Imperial Knight with my Shadowsword despite his Rotate Ion Shields Stratagem. Phew. My Tempestor Prime ran away from combat, but my Primaris Psyker chose to stay locked in combat and did a couple of mortal wounds with his Smite against one Kataphron Destroyer, but didn't kill him. After taking out the Knight Paladin, I then killed both Onager Dunecrawlers with neutron lasers with my Leman Russ tanks. Phew! I had repaired my Shadowsword to about 10 wounds, which kept him in the second profile, so no go. Oh well. Anyway, my Valkyrie fired and failed to do any wounds to the Kataphron Destroyers, but my Wyvern fired and wiped out the remaining Electro-Priests. Good riddance. Meanwhile, I had my Tempestor Prime retreat from combat and run to Objective 5 to capture it. The Primaris Psyker and Kataphron Destroyer remained locked in combat, but they failed to wound each other.

Thanks to that, I gained 2 points for Defend Objective 4, also bringing me up to 3 points, but I didn't have Objective 5 or 6, which was what I needed. Ugh. Oh well. At least I got rid of the majority of his army.

In the third turn, combined shooting from the Kataphron Destroyers and the sole remaining Onager Dunecrawler brought my Valkyrie down to just 1 wound. Still not enough to get the Destroy and Acquire tactical objective. Oh well. That's too bad. I can't remember what were the other objectives, but I believe one was A Quest for Knowledge and another was Slay the Warlord or something that he couldn't achieve. So he stayed at 3 points. But he continued charging his Warlord Tech-priest Enginseer toward my poor Tempestor Prime. Again he failed one of his hits, but this time he wounded, and then I made a 6+ armor save against the AP-2 Omnissian Axe while he similarly made a 6+ save against my AP-3 power sword. Oh well.

It didn't matter. I had my Tempestor Prime retreat but still remain in position to contest Objective 5. And then my Primaris Psyker finally killed 1 Kataphron Destroyer while dealing a mortal wound to the other. This time, I drew Defend Objective 3, so I moved my Leman Russ tank toward Objective 3, and had my Shadowsword and remaining 2 Leman Russ tanks fire and destroy the last Onager Dunecrawler and Kataphron Destroyers. My Wyverns fired and killed the Tech-priest Enginseer, giving me Slay the Warlord and allowing me to control Objective 5 for 2 consecutive turns, giving me another 3 points in total. So I had 6 points to his 3. Oh, and my Primaris Psyker killed the last remaining Kataphron Destroyer in combat with his force stave.

By turn 4, all my opponent had was Belsarius Cawl on the table. There was absolutely nothing he could do, and bringing Cawl to the open would just leave him to be murdered by my Shadowsword. So we called it at that point. And I had Linebreaker anyway, and would have gotten another 2 victory points from defending Objective 3 with my Leman Russ tank. So...oh well. Good game. I essentially tabled my opponent, leaving him with just one guy.

Game Two

The second game was Tactical Gambit, where we gamble on how many objectives we think we can achieve, then generate up to four tactical objectives per turn. This time, I went first and my opponent failed to seize the initiative.

I ended up destroying half his army in that turn. I even had the Overwhelming Firepower which gave me D3 victory points from killing at least 3 of his units. So basically I Deep Strike my Kamikaze Troopers right beside his Onager Dunecrawlers, moved my Valkyrie forward to have my plasma command squad, company commander and 2 Primaris Psykers grav-chute near the frontlines. I used Smite to deal 1 mortal wound to the Knight while killing a Kataphron Destroyer with the 2nd Smite. The plasma squad then took out the remaining Kataphron Destroyers. My Leman Russ tanks opened fire and took out one or two Kataphron Destroyer or Kataphron Breacher here and there, but I had First Blood from wiping out that first Destroyer squad. My Shadowsword didn't have such luck, failing to kill the Knight and only dealing about 12 damage in total despite help from my Leman Russ Annihilator. Meanwhile, on the other side of the table, my Kamikaze Troopers destroyed one Onager Dunecrawler with the neutron laser while the other one was also destroyed by a Leman Russ Executioner. My Tank Commander Warlord then fired and destroyed Belisarius Cawl with his plasma cannons and basically everything. Oh, and my Wyverns basically killed at least 8 Corpuscarii Electro-priests. Worse, 4 of them ran off the table after taking a moral test, leaving the squad with just 3 Electro-priests. Thanks to destroying at least 3 units, I acheved Overwhelming Firepower and rolled 3 (I think). With First Blood, I had 4 points. I also secured Objective 4 or something, so that netted me another point, bringing me up to 5. The other 2 objectives was Defend some other objective which I didn't have, and Behind Enemy Lines, which I achieved thanks to my Kamikaze Troopers Deep Striking right inside my opponent's deployment zone. So I had a total of 6.

The Knight Paladin tried to move toward my Leman Russ Annihilator, and he fired on my Shadowsword, but could do only one wound to him. The surviving Kataphron Destroyers and Kataphron Breachers all fired on my Valkyrie, and together with the surviving Onager Dunecrawler with Icarus array, finally destroyed my roving gunship. Poor guy! The 3 Electo-priests used Wrath of Mars Stratagem and wiped out the plasma command squad before they charged into my Company Commander, killing him with the mortal wounds from that Stratagem. Fortunately, my Primaris Psykers performed a Heroic Intervention and while the first guy failed to do anything in combat, the second guy actually killed all 3 of them with his force stave.

Wow. Just wow.

Because my opponent gambled on achieving 2 tactical objectives, and he achieved them (I think one was to destroy a single unit or something), he managed to get 4 Victory points to my 6.

The Rotate Ion Shield Stratagem was really proving its worth now, when the Knight survived my Shadowsword's (who was repaired to full health by my Tech-priest Enginseer) volcano cannon and despite adding Smite mortal wounds and other lascannons, I only brought him down to 2 wounds. The freaking Knight still had 2 wounds left. Meanwhile, my Leman Russ tanks were about to fire, only for the game to be called because the shop had to close. Oh well. I was about to kill the rest of the Kataphron Destroyers and Kataphron Breachers, the last Onager Dunecrawler and Tech-priest Enginseer anyway, so I guess that was fine. I also received unachievable Tactical Objectives such as giving 3-5 tank orders (and I only have 1 Tank Commander!), which was just plain weird. In any event, that was a great game, it was just too bad we had to cut it short.

I have to admit, I didn't think my Imperial Guard list would crush an Adeptus Mechanicus list this badly. Probably my opponent had terrible luck and his dice rolls didn't favor him at all (time to worship Tzeentch instead of the Omnissiah, my friend), but it was kind of one-sided. I think. Oh well...for the Emperor.

And Merry Christmas!

Sunday, December 17, 2017

Wins and losses

I'm exhausted, so I won't write a full battle report. But basically I tried playing against two opponents yesterday with my Imperial Guard list. Since I had gotten two new Wyverns, I tried them out against the pro Tau opponent.

I lost. For some reason I can't beat the guy. I don't know why. Perhaps the dice gods don't favor me. Perhaps it's my deployment. I'm not sure. But I really, really want to win against him. I'll challenge him again next week. The good news is that it was a very close battle. I think you all know, but this is the guy with the Stormsurge, 3 Fire Breacher teams, 2 teams of 10 Pathfinders, 2 Crisis Commanders with 4 fusion blasters, Farsight, 3 squads of 3 Crisis suits (2 of them with 3 plasma rifles each, 1 of them with 2 ion cyclic blasters each), and a whole bunch of Drones.

I brought my Shadowsword, 2 Leman Russ Executioner tanks (one of them is my tank commander), a Leman Russ Annihilator, 2 Wyverns, 2 Primaris Psykers, 1 Company Commander, 2 Tempestors Prime, 2 Tempestus command squads - 1 with 4 plasma guns and 1 with 4 hot-shot volley guns, a Valkyrie, a 10-men Kasrkin squad and a Tech-priest Enginseer.

They still weren't enough. The good news was that I wiped out his Stormsurge, all his Pathfinder teams and 1 Fire Breacher team in the first turn. The bad news was that his Crisis Suits alone were enough to wipe out my army. They Deep Struck, killed my Kasrkins and my Shadowsword, and the plasma command squad. I managed to take out the rest of the Fire Breachers with my remaining Kamikaze Troopers with hot-shot volley guns (who lost 1 guy), and my Wyverns killed a bunch of drones and wounded 1 Crisis suit, but it wasn't enough. He kept on coming, blew up another 2 Leman Russ tanks in 1 turn. I managed to wipe out a single Crisis suit squad and all the drones, and by the end of the battle, he had killed all my Leman Russ tanks and Wyverns, as well as my hot-shot volley command squad, but I reduced him to 1 plasma-rifle team of 3 Crisis suits, his 2 Crisis Commanders, Farsight and a single Crisis suit. I still had a Primaris Psyker, 1 Tempestor Prime and a Company Commander left, but that was all. I had nothing that could hold objectives, nothing that coould kill the remaining Crisis suits.

It was a hard loss to take, especially after I jumped to a lead by taking out his Stormsurge and Pathfinder teams. But his Crisis suits and drones were way too strong. I have no idea how to win against him. I don't think anyone will offer me advice (I doubt anyone reads this blog), but I'm open to ideas.

The second game was one-sided. This time I played against a kid who used Primaris Marines, and I swapped my Wyverns and Kasrkins out for a mortar heavy weapons squad, a lascannon heavy weapons squad, a 2nd Company Commander and 2 plasma command squads. I swapped the hot-shot volley guns for plasma guns. We played Maelstrom, and in the end I won 17 (or was it 18?) points to 8 and tabled the poor kid by turn 3 or 4. Without losing any of my tanks. Yeah.

Ouch.

Just to put into perspective, the kid brought a fairly strong list - a Captain in Gravis Armor who he spent 3 Command Points to upgrade into a Chapter Master, a Librarian, 3 tactical squads, 2 Inceptor squad (1 of them with plasma inferno pistols or something), a Devastator team with plasma cannons (really?), a Predator, a Repulsor and a Redemptor Dreadnought with the macro-plasma incinerator. And Hellblasters, who were inside the Repulsor.

I don't think it's my team that's weak. I still don't know how to beat the Tau guy, but he's literally the only one I can't win against. I somehow manage to win against everyone else, but this guy (who has participated in tournaments) is on a totally different level. Someone, please teach me how to beat him.

Monday, December 11, 2017

4,000-point game

I managed to get a game 2 days ago, and it was a crazy 4,000-point game! I got to play with the kids, and a third guy wanted to join in, so I suggested we play a team-game, with him and me bringing 2,000 points of our Imperium armies against 4,000 points of Orks. The other kid was pleased to oblige, for he had a Stompa and I really wanted to test my Shadowsword against the Stompa.

I probably won't go into detailed turns here, but basically the Ork guy brought his Stompa, at least 6 Killa Klans, 2 Deff Dreads, a Mega Dread (I think that's what it's called), Ghazghull, Mega-Nobs, a couple of Big Meks, a Painboy, 3 squads of Boyz (20, 30 and 30), 20 Grots, more Nobz, Scorchaboyz, Lootas and Tankbusters. And his Stompa, of course!


My Ultramarines ally brought Roboute Guilliman, 2 Legion of the Damned legionnaire squads, a couple of tactical squads (one of them in a drop pod and held in reserve), a few bikes, 3 Predators, a Devastator squad, 2 Dreadnoughts, a Terminator Captain, and a Terminator squad. As his list was weird, he didn't get any Command Points (maybe just 3). It didn't look Battleforged but we decided to give him a chance. As for me, I brought my Shadowsword, my 3 Leman Russ tanks (one tank Commander, a 2nd Leman Russ Executioner, a Leman Russ Annihilator), my Valkyrie, 2 company commanders, 2 command squads with 4 plasma guns each a lascannon heavy weapons squad, a mortar heavy weapons squad, 2 Primaris Psykers, a Tech-priest Enginseer, 2 Tempestors Prime, and 2 Tempestus command squads with 4 plasma guns each.

We rolled off, the Ork guy won the roll and chose to go first, and I rolled a 6 and stole the Initiative. Awesome! I proceeded to destroy his Stompa with my lascannon squad, Leman Russ Annihilator and Shadowsword, and then used my plasma guys to damage a deff dread and destroy another, and also killed a bunch of Nobz. My Leman Russ Executioners and mortar squads killed a bunch of Boyz in the 20-Boyz squad. My teammate didn't bring his forces in reserve into the table, so my 2 Primaris Psykers and plasma command squads got wiped out in shooting and melee by his Deff Dread, Scorchaboz and Killa Klans because they had no Space Marine support. It's fine. They are called Kamikaze Troopers for a reason. He also put a couple of wounds on my Shadowsword with the Big Meks. And moved his Boyz, Nobz and everyone up. Oh, and he killed my mortar squad. How sad. In the end, only one plasma gunner from the company squad and my Company Commander who dropped with him out of the Valkyrie survived.


Finally my teammate brought his forces in reserve to the table, dropping his drop pod and deep striking all his marines and Damned Legionnaires right in front of the Orks, probably to stem the Green Tide (how very narrative-orientated). We wiped out an entire squad of Boyz (the 20 dudes I was clearing), I killed the Deff Dread with my Leman Russ tanks and wiped out the Scorchaboyz with my Valkyrie, but my Tempestors Prime got wiped out in combat by the Killa Klans. I also managed to get rid of a few Lootas with my Shadowsword's volcano cannon.

The Orks came and slammed into the Marines, with Ghazghul and his Mega-Nobz wiping out both the tactical squad and the drop pod they came out from. They killed 4 Terminators, leaving just one guy, and half of the first Legionnaire squad. Then went into combat and killed all but one poor guy. This was when Guilliman intervened and he killed a bunch of Boyz. Wow. That guy is insane.


The final turn saw me destroying the Mega Dread with my lascannon team and Leman Russ Annihilator, and I killed 3 Killa Klans with my Leman Russ Executioners and Valkyrie. On the other hand, my Shadowsword fired and their kustom force fields protected the Killa Klans from the volcano cannon. Holy Terra...oh well. Funnily enough, my Shadowsword had better luck with the Grots, killing at least 7 of them with his three twin heavy bolters. I think I disintegrated a few Nobz with my Leman Russ Annihilator's plasma cannons too, so yay.

On the other side, my teammate wrecked more Orks in combat, wiping out the 2nd Boyz squad. I don't think there were too many Orks left on the table, just one Boyz squad left, Ghazghul himself and his Mega Nobz, Tankbustas and Lootas, the Painboy, the Big Meks...and the 3 Killa Klans. Ghazghul ran and charged Guilliman, challenging him to combat. I think he put 5 wounds on Guilliman, who promptly wiped the floor with Ghazghul, dealing a total of 15 wounds in return.


The Waaagh! was stopped dead in its tracks and the Imperium scored an invaluable victory under Lord Commander Guilliman. Not surprising. Still, it was a lot of fun, and the Space Marines were looking very...whittled. I think the poor Ultramarines player had only half his Legionnaires left, lost all his tactical squads and all but 1 Terminator, but he still had his Dreadnoughts, 3 Predators and Devastator squad. I also had all my tanks and my lascannon squad, plus the Valkyrie and the lone surviving plasma gunner and his company commander. If the game had continued on, the Orks guy would have done more damage, but we would have probably tabled him eventually with all those tanks. Phew. Still it was an extremely exciting and fun game, and even the Orks player enjoyed it tremendously, running his green tide and overwhelming so many Marines, plus making all those invulnerable saves for his Killa Klans against the Shadowsword's volcano cannon! Awesome!

Battle Report 20

Sorry for the delay. I was busy for the past week, so I wasn't able to type this battle report last week. This battle report actually took place on December 2nd, but as I was busily trying to finish my essays and other end-of-the-semester stuff, I didn't have much time to write a battle report.

Writing these things take up a lot of time, for some reason.

Anyway, I managed to get a game against Craftworld Eldar, and he used Altaoic (let me know if I mispelled the name). He brought three Detachments, a Battalion of 4 Warlocks and a Ranger Character with 3 Ranger squads, a Spearhead Detachment of some other character (Farseer?) with 2 War Walkers and 2 Fire Prisms, and an Outrider Detachment of 2 Swooping Hawks, 1 Striking Scorpion and a Phoenix Lord guy. It was a 1,500-point game, by the way.


I brought a Spearhead Detachment and a Supreme Command Detachment, so my usual Tank Commander in a Leman Russ Executioner, a 2nd Leman Russ Executioner, a Leman Russ Annihilator and a lascannon heavy weapons squad. Following which was 2 Company Commanders, 2 Command Squads (split between each Detachment) with 4 plasma guns each, 2 Primaris Psykers and my Shadowsword.

Before you go all, "how could you bring a super-heavy to a 1,500-point game?!", let me assure you that it was balanced, and despite his presence, the match was very even and ran all the way down to the final round in nerve-wracking manner.

The objective was Prize, so basically we have a single objective in the center of the table, which was a "prize" that can be picked up by any unit. The victory condition is for us to hold onto the objective by the end of turn 5. Basically, whoever is holding the prize when turn 5 ends is the winner.

We deployed, and the Eldar guy got to start first. I failed to seize the initiative.

Turn 1

Turn 1 was brutal. Using the Fire Prisms' Stratagem (coordinated fire or something?), he wrecked my Leman Russ Executioner, while his Swooping Hawks dropped down and killed a plasma command squad. My Primaris Psykers denied the witch, stopping him from casting about 2 of his psychic powers. Not bad! But I lost quite a bit of forces in just one turn.

I retaliated but I didn't do much. I think I wrecked 1 War Walker and wounded one of the Fire Prisms, bringing it down to just 2 wounds, but was unable to finish it off. By casting Fortune (and me failing to deny it), the Striking Scorpions were basically immune to my plasma fire, and I failed to smite because it was my opponent's turn to Deny The Witch. I also failed to kill the Warlocks. Ouch. On the other hand, my Shadowsword obliterated most of the Swooping Hawks at the back with his three twin heavy bolters. My remaining plasma command squad also killed all but one or two of the 2nd Swooping Hawk squad, but that was about it.

Turn 2

Here, the Striking Scorpions charged and killed my lascannon heavy weapons team, and my Company Commander performed a Heroic Intervention but didn't kill any of them. Oh well. The Warlocks, Rangers, remaining Swooping Hawk, and that Farseer Character killed my Primaris Psykers and last Company Command squad, leaving just the poor Company Commander on his own. Oh well. The Phoenix Lord and surviving Swooping Hawks then charged my Shadowsword, and didn't do much. Surprisingly enough, with Adamantium Tracks, I took quite a few wounds off the Phoenix Lord! It was also this turn when my opponent wised up to the danger my Shadowsword posed and tried to put a few wounds on him. Maybe 5 or so?

During my turn, I tried to kill the Striking Scorpions, but once again, Fortune favors the bold and they survived most of the plasma shots. I did kill the last War Walker and finished off the Fire Prism, so yay. Hooray, Leman Russ Annihilator and Shadowsword! The Shadowsword opened fire with his three twin heavy bolters in combat and killed all the Swooping Hawks, leaving none behind. He then used his Adamantium Tracks and killed the Phoenix Lord by crushing him under his treads. Way to go, Shadowsword!

Turn 3

Between the Rangers and the Striking Scorpions, my opponent killed my Company Commander and Tank Commander. Ouch. By this time, I didn't have much stuff left on the table, with only my Leman Russ Annihilator and Shadowsword, while my opponent still had a bunch of Striking Scorpions, all 3 Ranger squads, the Farseer and Warlocks, and a couple of Swooping Hawks. And the Fire Prism at the back.

I managed to kill the Warlocks with lascannons and plasma cannons from my Leman Russ Annihilator, while my Shadowsword began moving up toward the building, where my opponent had snuck his Rangers in to grab the prize. He wiped out the Striking Scorpions with his three twin heavy bolters - by now his Warlocks and Farseer character were too far away to cast Fortune on them, so they went down pretty easily. I couldn't hit any of the Rangers because of their Dig In Stratagem that gave me a -2 to hit. Ugh.


Turn 4

My opponent charged and destroyed my Leman Russ Annihilator with the Farseer guy and Rangers. All I had was my Shadowsword. I continued moving toward the building and fired at the remaining Fire Prism, but like before, I only brought it down to 2 wounds. Ugh. The 3 squads of Rangers were virtually untouched by my twin heavy bolters, but I ignored them and used the Crush Them! Stratagem to charge the Farseer Character and hit on 2s in melee, crushing him under my Adamantium Tracks.

Turn 5

Knowing that he couldn't kill my Shadowsword, who still had more than half his wounds left, and his Fire Prism hitting on 5s and missing thanks to having only 2 wounds left, my opponent tried to get his Rangers to flee as far away as possible before my Shadowsword drove up to them and kill them. He tried but failed to wound my Shadowsword. My turn came and I basically moved and advanced my Shadowsword toward the Rangers, rolling a 6 for my Advance. I ignored and forewent shooting altogether, ignoring the 3 Ranger squads and the Fire Prism, and used the Crush Them! Stratagem for a second time. This time I did exactly 5 wounds and...wiped out all 5 Rangers in the squad (AP -2 and they only had a 5+ armor save). Any less and I would have lost the game because Rangers have Objective Secured. In any case, I rolled over and crushed the Rangers under my Shadowsword's Adamantium Tracks, picked up the prize and...won the game.

That was a crazy end to a crazy game, that ran close to the wire. I can't stop laughing at the insane manner of victory. Can you imagine it? Running a Shadowsword right over fleeing Rangers to steal the prize from right under the nose of the Eldar? It was hilarious. I almost got tabled - my Shadowsword was literally my only model left on the table. My entire army was wiped out. My infantry was eradicated, my Leman Russ tanks wrecked. All I had was one Shadowsword. In contrast, my opponent still had 2 full Ranger squads, that Ranger character, the Fire Prism with 2 wounds left, and a couple of Swooping Hawks. If I hadn't done exactly five wounds, I would have lost the game. It came down to those final rolls in the combat phase!

And hence the Imperium emerged victorious over the insidious Eldar. Emperor, I love this game and all the crazy twists!

Wednesday, December 6, 2017

Chapter Approved 2017 Warlord Edition



Whoops, I forgot to post this up yesterday, probably because I was busily writing my essay and other stuff. But I received my Chapter Approved 2017 Warlord Edition yesterday! Praise the Emperor!

It looks pretty good so far. I'm going to try and organize an Apocalypse game on Saturday, but we'll see how it goes. Otherwise I'll be happy trying out the new Eternal War missions. Anyway, I'm pleased to have all the cards and the game trackers! Can't wait to use them!

You can order your copy online here or buy the normal edition from your local gaming store!