Battle Report 29

I was volunteering at the Midwest Conference on Asian Affairs for 2 days straight - Friday and Saturday - so I wasn't able to go to Dreamers Vault on Saturday. Nonetheless, it was totally worth it. I learned a lot of stuff and met a lot of professors from universities all over the country. It was a really fruiful session!

Fortunately, I managed to get a game yesterday (Sunday). So yay! I guess? Anyway, I went down to Dreamers Vault yesterday, thanks to my friend (thank you for picking me up and sending me there and back!), and had a great game with him.

Draconian Armored Defenders reporting for battle! 74th Armored Company, consisting of 2 Leman Russ Executioner tanks, 2 Leman Russ Annihilator tanks, a single Super-heavy Shadowsword, with accompanying Armored infantry and Storm Troopers in Valkyrie Assault Carrier.

 My friend wanted to test a new list, and I was more than happy to oblige him. We were playing a 2,000-point game, and my friend brought an Imperial Soup list of Imperial Knights, Imperial Guard and Adeptus Mechanicus. His Knights was a Super-heavy Detachment that had a Knight Paladin, which was his Warlord that had the Ion Bulwark Warlord Trait and Ravager Relic, a Knight Errant Freeblade, and a single Armiger Helverin with a meltagun. Other than the Freeblade, the others were House Raven, though we forgot about that and treated his Freeblade as House Raven while forgetting to roll to see if he suffered his burdens every turn. His Adeptus Mechanicus was the Tech-priest Dominus with Autocadeus of Arkhan Land or something, 3 squads of 5 Corpuscarii Electro-priests and 2 Onager Dunecrawlers with neutron lasers. He spent a Command Point for that. Then he brought in a Battalion of Imperial Guard, which included 2 Tempestors Prime, 2 squads of 7 Tempestus Scions each (a Tempestor, 4 Tempestus Scions with hot-shot lasguns and 2 Tempestus Scions with plasma guns), a single infantry squad, and a Commissar - which he kitbashed using a cool female Commissar. Awesome. They were Cadian. Yeah. I think that's it.

Adeptus Mechanicus (Dark Mechanicum?!) forces from the Forge World Lucifer, with their Knightly allies.

As for me, to stand a fighting chance against his Knights, I brought my Shadowsword. I probably did not use an optimized list - should have brought a Brigade and a Shadowsword, but never mind. Anyway, I brought a Battalion of Cadian (Draconian) infantry - 2 Company Commanders with bolt pistols, 3 infantry squads with a plasma gun each, a heavy weapon squad equipped with 3 lascannons and a Valkyrie to cart them around. I love my Valkyrie. Then a Spearhead Detachment of 4 Leman Russ tanks - a Tank Commander in a Leman Russ Executioner, another Leman Russ Executioner, and 2 Leman Russ Annihilator tanks. Yeah, I'm heaping up on lascannons, that's for sure! Lastly, I brought a Supreme Command Detachment of 2 Primaris Psykers, a Tempestor Prime with plasma pistol, a plasma Tempestus command squad and a Shadowsword. My Warlord was a Company Commander with Kurov's Aquila, but since we had the FAQ nerfing our Command Points refund ability, I chose Old Grudges as his Warlord Trait, and nominated my opponent's Warlord Knight as the target for my Cadian (Draconian) units within 6" of my Warlord to re-roll failed wound rolls against him. Oh boy, that looks like a mean list! I should have brought a Brigade and a Shadowsword instead, but this list actually worked out pretty well for me! Yay!

Well, as it turns out, this list worked out wonderfully for me.

We played Retrieval Mission, and my friend chose the deployment zone Vanguard Strike. The weird one where we were using diagonal deployment zones or something. Then we began to deploy. I put my Company Commander and one infantry squad inside the Valkyrie so that my gunship could zip around and drop them on any of the far objectives if necessary. For the first time ever, I ended up finishing my deployment of my Astra Militarum units before my opponent. For the first time ever (other than the times I played Imperial Knights against the T'au fella), I got to add +1 to my roll to decide who goes first. Even though I was bringing quite some infantry...but most of my army constituted of tanks and a gunship - particularly the Shadowsword, which took up a lot of points. So I guess that's probably why. In any case, we rolled off, and I got to go first! My opponent rolled to seize the initiative, and he failed.

Turn 1

I had parked my line of tanks on one of the objectives, along with my Shadowsword. My infantry moved and advanced to capture 2 more objectives that were just outside my deployment zone. My Valkyrie went into hover mode, so that I could shoot with +1 to my BS. That was all for movement. My Primaris Psykers successfully cast Psychic Barrier and Nightshroud on my Shadowsword, to increase its durability and survivability - a priority, especially since my opponent had two Knights and 2 Onager Dunecrawlers equipped with neutron lasers.

Then the shooting began.

The heavy armor and tanks of the Astra Militarum against the Electro-Priests of the Adeptus Mechanicus and their Knightly Allies.

My Shadowsword took 9 wounds off the Knight Errant, despite the dude using Rotate Ion Shields to bring his invulnerable save up to 4++. I wasn't rolling very hot for my poor Shadowsword. He also decimated the infantry squad hidden in cover, killing 6 of them with his twin heavy bolters. Between my lascannon heavy weapons squad - which received the Take Aim! order, and one of my Leman Russ Annihilator tanks, I took another 9 wounds off my opponent's Warlord Knight. 4++ invulnerable save with Ion Bulwark is really impressive. On the other side of my table, the other Leman Russ Annihilator, the Valkyrie with his lascannon, and the 2 Leman Russ Executioner tanks with their lascannons combined fire and brought the Knight Errant to just 3 wounds, putting him in his last tier of degradation, but failed to kill him off. Ouch. Fortunately, the Leman Russ Executioner tanks supercharged their plasma cannons and Executioner plasma cannons and destroyed the nearest Onager Dunecrawler with neutron laser, earning me first blood and helping relieve some of the firepower that would come my way. The decimated infantry squad passed morale because they had the Leadership of 8 thanks to the lady Commissar beside them, but otherwise nothing of note happened. At least I earned a Victory Point with First Blood.

My opponent then had his Knight Errant move and Advanced back (by this point we ignored the Freeblade thing and treated him as House Raven so that he can Advance and shoot despite being in his last tier). His Knight Paladin stomped toward my hapless Guardsmen on the right, while three squads of Corpuscarii Electo-priests moved and advanced toward my Guardsmen on the left flank. The Armiger Helverin proceeded forward, to the center of the map. The Tech-priest Dominus advanced forward to repair the wounded Knight Errant, and used the Tech-Adept Stratagem to repair him again, bringing him up to 5 wounds and lifting him out of his last tier. He opened fire with his Knight Paladin and remaining Onager Dunecrawler, and between the two of them, destroyed one of my Leman Russ Annihilator. Ouch. The Knight Errant fired, but either because it missed or failed to wound, or I made my saves, and he did no damage. On the other side, the Armiger Helverin opened fire on my surviving Leman Russ Annihilator, but only did 3 damage to the poor guy, with me making one save and him not wounding much. Phew.

From my (the Astra Militarum's) point of view. Vanguard Strike!

Unfortunately, the Knight Paladin charged my infantry squad, took no damage, and then promptly wiped them out with his Titanic Feet. He killed like 7 or 8 of them, and the rest fled due to morale. No way they would pass morale from that!

Turn 2

I used Jury Rigged to repair my wounded Leman Russ Annihilator. Then I moved my infantry squad on the left flank to hide inside the building - not that it would do them much help. On the other side, right in my opponent's deployment zone where he was holding an objective, I Deep Struck my Tempestor Prime with plasma pistol and Tempestus Command squad with 4 plasma guns. Again, during my psychic phase, I cast Psychic Barrier and Nightshroud on my Shadowsword, and succeeded again. Guess all my time playing Thousand Sons is really paying off! My Primaris Psykers are learning a thing or two from those Loyalist pretending-to-be-Chaos Sorcerers! I then fired upon him. The Valkyrie and Leman Russ Executioner fired on the Knight Errant, and between the two of them, finished him off. Well, the Leman Russ Executioner fired his plasma cannon sponsons on the Corpuscarii Electo-priests and killed only one of them. Thankfully (for my opponent), he did not blow up. On the other side of the map, my Shadowsword, Leman Russ Annihilator and heavy weapons squad fired everything they had on the Knight Paladin Warlord, but he survived with just one wound remaining. Ouch. I still failed to kill him. NO! My Tempestus Command squad fired and took out 10 wounds from the Onager Dunecrawler, leaving him with just 1, but again failed to kill him. Ouch. Again. Damn it. Anyway, what was next? Ah, right. My tank commander fired his plasma cannons on the Corpuscarii Electro-priests and wiped out one squad. Yay. Oh, and the Shadowsword's twin heavy bolters killed another 2 Guardsmen - my opponent made a lot of his armor saves this time, and he had 2 guys left in the squad, who passed morale because of the Commissar.

Knight makes Right!

My opponent then moved his Tech-priest Dominus back to repair his Onager Dunecrawlers and brought him back up to 5 wounds using the Tech-Adept Stratagem (repaired 2 wounds each time - and used the Autocadeus to re-roll one of the D3 rolls which gave him a 1). One of the two remaining squads of the Corpuscarii Electro-priests moved back, toward my Tempestus Command squad, while the other moved toward my infantry squad cowering in the left building to grab the objective. The Knight Paladin stomped forward, Advancing because he's House Raven, and so did the Armiger Helverin. Then he Deep Struck both Tempestus Scion squads in front of my Shadowsword, while he put one Tempestor Prime with them, and the other arrived back with the decimated infantry squad. I wasn't sure if Tempestor Prime could issue orders to infantry squads since they did not have the Regiment Keyword (they only have the Militarum Tempestus keyword), but for the purpose of this game I just let him do it. I mean...he was already behind, and it was a friendly game, so who cares, right?

His Knight Paladin Warlord used the House Raven Stratagem to re-roll all ones. He fired everything into my Shadowsword, but didn't do anything. Well, to be fair, he's on his last wound, and was hitting on 5+s, so...and even with the few wounds he made with the rapid-fire battle cannon, between cover and Psychic Barrier giving me +2 to my saves, I negated the AP -2 of his battle cannon and still had a 3+ armor save. Hell, actually, he should be hitting on 6+s because of Nightshroud. Whoops. I forgot about that. The Armiger Helverin killed a single lascannon team with his meltagun, and then did another 3 wounds to my poor Leman Russ Annihilator, bringing him down to 7 wounds. The Corpuscarii Electro-priests absolutely wiped out my infantry squad on the left - even if all that shooting didn't kill them, I think the survivors - maybe 1 or 2, ran away from morale. On the other side, my opponent used Wrath of Mars and wiped out the Tempestus plasma command squad with mortal wounds even before I could make my saves. Why did he do that? A waste of Command Points, truly. The two Guardsmen then fired on my Tempestor Prime, and I failed my armor saves despite having 4+ against AP0, and he took 2 wounds. The wounded Onager Dunecrawler fired on my Shadowsword, but this time I remembered the Nightshroud, so he was still hitting on 5+s despite being back up to 5 wounds. Consequently, he only hit and wounded once, and I failed my 6+ save (Psychic Barrier), which meant he took a minimum of 3 damage (he rolled a 2 for damage, but it counts as 3 because of the neutron laser special rule). After all that shooting, my Shadowsword still had 23 wounds remaining. YAY! On the other hand, he killed a single lascannon team with his cognis heavy stubbers, leaving just one guy remaining, and I had to spend a Command Point to reroll morale to keep them in the fight. Their leadership was only 6, after all. No Sergeant and all that. Ugh. The Tempestus Scions also fired their plasma guns and hot-shot lasguns, and for some reason he elected to use the First Rank, Fire! Second Rank, Fire! to increase his hot-shot lasguns to Rapid Fire 2. Didn't wound, and with the -1 penalty, well....nothing happened. He failed to wound with the hot-shot lasguns, one of the plasmagunners were slain due to an overheating plasma gun that exploded when he supercharged it, and the others missed (Nightshroud) and didn't wound or I made my 5+ save against them with Psychic Barrier still in effect. Phew.

Point of view from my opponent...well, obviously this isn't in chronological order because by then the Knight on the right had been blasted to atoms by lascannons.

Turn 3

First, I repaired my Leman Russ Annihilator with Jury Rigged and brought him up to 8 wounds. I moved my Primaris Psykers toward the Armiger Helverin, and then cast Smite and Psychic Maelstrom. Smite only did 1 mortal wound. Ouch. On the other hand, I was rolling funnily for Psychic Maelstrom. I accidentally Perils with 2 6s, and my Primaris Psyker sufered a mortal wound for his troubles. Ouch. Funnily enough, I rolled a 2, then a 3, then a 4 to inflict 3 mortal wounds on the Armiger Helverin. Laughing, I was half-expecting to roll a 5, but I didn't, so the Armiger Helverin only took 4 mortal wounds. Heh.

Shooting phase was brutal. My Warlord Leman Russ Executioner retaliated and wiped out the Corpuscarii Electro-priests who massacred my poor infantry squad on the left flank, taking revenge for the murdered Draconian infantry. Yay! On the other side, my remaining lascannon team fired upon the Knight Paladin Warlord, and he had to spend a Command Point to re-roll his failed Ion Shield save. Growing desperate, I had my Leman Russ Executioner fire his main plasma executioner cannon and lascannon at the Knight Paladin, and he eventually went down from the supercharged plasma, thus earning me Slay the Warlord. Awesome! I finally killed both Knights after 3 turns! The plasma cannon sponsons didn't do as well, I think I only killed 2 or 3 more in the squad where one of the plasma gunners were slain by his exploding plasma gun, this leaving about 3 Tempestus Scions in the squad. Without a Knight to shoot, my Shadowsword fired his volcano cannon on the Armiger Helverin, and needless to say, it was overkill. Too much overkill, in fact...since the Armiger Helverin blew up from the destruction, dishing out two mortal wounds to my opponent's Tempestor Prime, 2 mortal wounds to my remaining lascannon team and wiping out the heavy weapons squad, and 2 mortal wounds to my Primaris Psyker who cast Smite on him. Whoops. The Shadowsword then opened up with his twin heavy bolters and annihilated one Tempestus Scions squad - the unscathed one, which had all 7 still alive. Well, now they're all dead. The Leman Russ Annihilator then fired and destroyed the Onager Dunecrawler with his lascannons.

That Knight was destroyed a few seconds after I took this photograph. Poor dude.

At that point of the game, my opponent called it. I was well on my way to tabling him, and I could clearly grab the other 2 Objectives within reach while he was in danger of losing that one Objective he was holding onto. By the 3rd turn - and it wasn't even his turn yet - he had lost almost everything and only had a single squad of 5 Corpuscarii Electro-priests, 2 Guardsmen in a decimated infantry squad, a Tech-priest Dominus, a lady Commissar, 2 Tempestors Prime and a decimated squad of 3 stormtroopers left. Yeah, that's it. Nothing else. Most of his heavy firepower had been cleaned out by my tanks and heavy weapon squad, and he could do little against my Shadowsword. His remaining stormtroopers would definitely be wiped out next turn, and there was little they could do against my tanks, Primaris Psykers. In contrast, I only lost a single Leman Russ Annihilator and most of my infantry. Sure, 2 infantry squads were obliterated, but I still had a single full infantry squad and a Company Commander embarked upon my unscathed Valkyrie, which was ready to swoop across the table and Grav-chute them onto any objective. 3 Leman Russ tanks, still at their highest tier (the 2 Leman Russ Executioners completely undamaged), awaited, along with my Shadowsword that had only taken 3 wounds so far. My Primaris Psykers were still around, ready to Smite the Tempestus Scions, along with my Warlord Company Commander hiding and standing on the objective beside a Leman Russ Annihilator tank with Objective Secured. Most likely he would kill my Tempestor Prime in his turn, but that was all he could do. He didn't have the firepower left to kill anything else, or the numbers to capture and hold Objectives. I did.

It was a rough game, very brutal for my opponent. Maybe next time I'll drop the Shadowsword and bring a friendlier list. In fact, I offered to bring my Thousand Sons and play against his Knights and Onager Dunecrawlers with Thousand Sons, and we were about to do that, but last-minute stuff happened and we had to postpone that game to another day. Still looking forward to it!

What do you guys think about the game? What could my friend have done to prevent such a one-sided, crushing defeat? I suspect it's his target prority, and I did try to advise him against some of his decisions, such as orders, or shooting the wrong targets, etc., but...oh well. Can you guys think of anything else? And what would you advise that I bring to prevent such one-sided games? Thanks in advance.