Battle Report 30

Thanks to the grace of the Emperor, I was able to have another game yesterday, and thus I will bring you a new battle report...that nobody will read. Well, doesn't matter, I'll keep writing until I get sick of writing battle reports, and they aren't worth reading anyway, given how terrible I am at writing them. Sorry for wasting space on the Internet.

Anyway, it was a battle between the Imperium and the Thousand Sons. I couldn't use my normal list because my Traitor Guardsmen (seems like I'll be able to use new datasheets for them soon instead of relying on counting them as Cultists) were taken by my opponent. And my Leman Russ tanks too. So I could only play Thousand Sons without Cultists (not that I needed them, except for holding objectives and getting more Command Points). Anyway, my opponent requisitioned my Leman Russ tanks and Guardsmen for himself, and I was left with nothing but Rubric Marines, Scarab Occult Terminators, Exalted Sorcerers, a Daemon Prince and Ahriman. Oh, and the Hellforged Dreadnoughts. Oh, well...on the bright side I could bring more Hellforged Dreadnoughts, so it wasn't all bad. Sucks that my Command Points were much lower than I would like them to be.

Thousand Sons with their mystical automatons.

So my opponent brought a combined Blood Angels and Imperial Guard list that was really, really, really strong and put it against my gimped and weakened Thousand Sons list without any anti-tank or cheap troops for maximum Command Points. So basically he brought a Vanguard Detachment of Blood Angels. Mephiston, Astraroth, a squad of 8 (or was it 6? Or 5?) Sanguinary Guard, 2 squads of Death Company dudes (5 each), a Sanguinary Novalite or however you spell it (the one who gives Feel No Pain or something, the Sanguinary apothecary), an Ironclad Dreadnought and...I think that's it, to be honest. He had like 5 Elites, almost using up all the slots in his Vanguard Detachment. Then he brought a Spearhead Detachment of my Leman Russ tanks, having requisitioned 3 Leman Russ Executioner tanks and a Leman Russ Annihilator - one of them was a Tank Commander. Ouch. I can't believe I'm seeing my own tanks used against me, and it hurts. He had about 200 points left over and here is where I (and another friend) came in. I had to advise him and the other friend the wisdom of either including 3 squads of Scouts or using those 200 points to put into an Imperial Guard Battalion. To my not-surprise, after I've explained to him the strengths of both (especially Guard, since I'm an Astra Militarum player), he opted to requisition my Guardsmen and form a Battalion of Imperial Guard. Hence, my Thousand Sons suddenly finding themselves bereft of their Spireguard allies. Oh well.

That didn't matter. Come on, my opponent is just a kid around 11. I don't mind taking a weakened list to face his strong list. It will be more fun that way.

So after convincing him the strength of a Guard battalion and the need for 5 more Command Points, I allowed him to borrow my Guardsmen - so 2 Company Commanders and 3 infantry squads, all with mortars. Because he had about 15 points left over, so why the hell not? Anyway, Mephiston was the Warlord.

With my options limited, I just opted to bring whatever Thousand Sons units I have. So Ahzek Ahriman as my Warlord, a Daemon Prince of Tzeentch, an Exalted Sorcerer with two power swords on disc of Tzeentch, an Exalted Sorcerer on foot, a squad of 10 Rubric Marines with 8 inferno boltguns and soulreaper cannon, a squad of 10 Rubric Marines with 9 warpflamers, a group of Cultists with heavy stubber that I used my Cadian Kasrkins for (since I lent all my normal Guardsmen to my opponent), 5 Scarab Occult Terminators, 2 Hellforged Contemptor Dreadnoughts with 2 butcher cannons each, and a Hellforged Deredeo Dreadnought with butcher array and greater havoc launcher. Am I missing anything? I don't think so.

Trying to get a better angle and utterly failing...sorry.

We drew Big Guns Never Tire...which funnily enough, actually benefited me a lot more because my opponent essentially had three Heavy Support units in the form of Leman Russ tanks while I had only 1 in the form of my hellforged Deredeo Dreadnought. Now if it was me playing my usual Astra Militarum tank-heavy list...yeah, I would have hell to pay, with so many different tanks for my opponents to score points off me. Oh, in case you don't know, Big Guns Never Tire mean that all Heavy Support units have Objective Secured, but whenever you kill an enemy unit that has the Heavy Support role, you get 1 Victory Point. Awesome for me, but not for my opponent. And normally awesome for my opponent but not for me. Guess it's Tzeentch's idea of a good joke on a primary Astra Militarum player deprived of his usual Leman Russ tanks. Plus there were 4 Objectives we could contest, and each one nets us 3 points if we're holding them at the end of the game.

Since I'm Thousand Sons and my opponent had lots of Astra Militarum units, I inevitably went first. And my opponent failed to seize the initiative. Bad luck!

Turn 1

Before the first battle round began, my opponent used the Death Company Stratagem for one of his Death Company squads to move and advanced toward my lines. Meanwhile, his Sanguinary Guard, Sanguinary Novilite, 2nd Death Company squad and Astraroth were in Deep Strike. My Scarab Occult Terminators remained in reserve as well.

I moved everyone forward. My Daemon Prince, Ahriman, my Exalted Sorcerer on disc. My "Cultists" stayed behind to camp on one objective as did one squad of 10 Rubric Marines on the second and top level above my Cultists. The 10 warpflamer Rubric squad followed Ahriman closely because he had Warptime. My Exalted Sorcerer on foot stayed still, as did my hellforged Contemptor Dreadnoughts and single Deredeo Dreadnought, the silent automatons remaining stationary on a second Objective.

Mephiston denied a Gaze of Fate (why?!) and I think Smite from my Daemon Prince. Welp. Ahriman did better, using Smite on the Guardsmen, and he periled, taking one mortal wound but doing D6 mortal wounds...only for me to roll a 1 or 2. Can't remember. So the lead Leman Russ tank took a single mortal wound. Whoopee. Warptime went off, and the Flamer Rubric Marines moved again - having Advanced 5+6" earlier, and since they're using assault weapons they could fire after Advancing. Without hesitation, they torched the Death Company right in front of them and wiped them out. First Blood to me.

The Exalted Sorcerer on disc used Smite on the Guardsmen in front of him, killing one or two, and I think he failed his other power. Can't remember. The other Exalted Sorcerer on foot used Glamor of Tzeentch on the Deredeo Dreadnought, and it went off. Yay.

My Contemptor Dreadnoughts and Hellforged Deredeo Dreadnought focused all their shooting on one Leman Russ Executioner tank and destroyed him completely. 1 victory point! The Deredeo also fired his twin heavy bolters and greater havoc launcher on one infantry squad that the Exalted Sorcerer smote and completely wiped them out, leaving the other 3 tanks exposed.

In contrast, my opponent's Blood Angels and Imperial Guard army! Wait, that's my Imperial Guard army! Never mind...

My opponent then moved his Ironclad Dreadnought and Mephiston forward, but they were still out of range. He was also forced to move his 3 surviving Leman Russ tanks up to capture the objective where I blew out the infantry squad and Leman Russ Executioner during my turn. Mephiston used psychic spells, but he either failed them or Ahriman denied him. Payback time! The Leman Russ Annihilator targeted the Exalted Sorcerer with all his lascannons and blew him out of existence after I failed 3 invulnerable saves. The lascannons did like 17 damage, overkill - more than enough to put a Knight almost on his last bracket. The Tank Commander fired, and even though I questioned the wisdom of it, my opponent used Strike and Shroud! on the Tank Commander himself. Anyway, the weight of plasma fire vaporized my Daemon Prince, and I was not making any of my invulnerable saves. Ugh.

The second Leman Russ Executioner fired and put about 4 wounds or so on my Contemptor Dreadnought, and once again I failed to make any of my invulnerable saves. I was rolling terribly in this game. Ugh. The mortars fired on my Rubric Marines, but they did absolutely nothing because of All is Dust giving them a 2+ armor save. YAY!

But my Exalted Sorcerer and Daemon Prince was dead. Ugh.

Turn 2

Ahriman continued advancing toward the Tank Commander while the Rubric Marines moved up. I think I used Warptime again on the Rubric Marines, but Mephiston probably denied my first Smite, but Doombolt worked and I did a couple of mortal wounds on the Ironclad Dreadnought. Heh. I had my Scarab Occult Terminators Deep Strike behind a second infantry squad, and took one out with Smite. And my Exalted Sorcerer cast Temporal Manipulation to heal my wounded Contemptor Dreadnought back up to 9 wounds while he cast Glamor of Tzeentch again on the Deredeo Dreadnought.

The Rubric Marines, needless to say, wiped out the infantry squad. I used Veterans of the Long War, so my Rubric Marine was able to put just 1 wound on the Tank Commander with his warpflamer - only one of him was in range to use it on the Tank Commander, and the rest used their warpflamers on the infantry squad. At the back, the Scarab Occult Terminators fired their inferno combi-bolters and killed all but one mortar squad, with the mortar squad only having 1 wound left. The Hellfyre missiles didn't work, one missing and the other failing to wound, but I think I did at least one wound with the soulreaper cannon on the Leman Russ Annihilator. My Contemptor Dreadnoughts and Deredeo Dreadnought fired, and I destroyed the Leman Russ Annihilator while putting a couple of wounds on the Leman Russ Executioner.

My Scarab Occult Terminators charged the single surviving mortar, and to my utmost surprise, made their charge and killed him in combat, even as the Company Commander did a heroic intervention and did absolutely nothing with his chainsword.

Who says Thousand Sons can't play a gunline army? Look at those three menacing automata!

My opponent moved his Ironclad Dreadnought and Mephiston toward my warpflamer Rubric Marines. He Deep Struck his Sanguinary Guard and Sanguinary Novilite right next to my Scarab Occult Terminators to eliminate them from the backfield. Astraroth and Death Company popped up in front of my Rubric Marines, and he used the Upon Wings of Fire Stratagem to charge them into my Rubric Marines. Anyway, after an ineffective shooting, he charged them all right in. Only the Leman Russ tanks will doing any damage, putting another 6 wounds on my Contemptor Dreadnought and some on my Deredeo Dreadnought, and as usual I failed my saves. What...

Death Company completely wiped out my Rubric Marines in combat, with only one Sorcerer and one soulreaper cannon guy left after they were done with them. I was rolling horribly. Even though I only needed 2s to save against their chainswords, I rolled like 4 ones, and 4 died. I'm pretty sure they didn't die in shooting, so I have no idea how the rest died. I know, the last 2 died in morale, and the Death Company Consolidated toward my Cultists/Guardsmen at the bottom. Meanwhile, I did quite a few damage to the Ironclad Dreadnought on Overwatch, and he had like 3 or 4 wounds left. But he and Mephiston made it, and it was more than enough to kill all but 3 Rubric Marines. The Aspiring Sorcerer did another 2 damage to the Ironclad Dreadnought, bringing him down to 2 wounds. Or something like that. Unlike the other Rubric squad, they survived morale for some reason, with only one guy running away. The Sanguinary Guard failed their charge, however...but they had killed 3 or so Scarab Occult Terminators with me just failing my saves. I think it wasn't just them, but the Leman Russ Executioner tanks firing their plasma cannon sponsons into my Terminators too, and as usual I failed all my saves, and 3 died.

Turn 3

With most of my expensive, elite forces decimated, I was not in a very good spot. Ahriman moved toward the Tank Commander, as did the Scarab Occult Terminators, and I think I did 2 more mortal wounds to him with Smite. Oh, and while Mephiston denied the Aspiring Sorcerer's Smite, he couldn't deny Ahriman, and I destroyed the Ironclad Dreadnought with Doombolt. Nice! But he periled again and took another 2 mortal wounds, bringing him down to 2. Ugh. Meanwhile, Temporal Manipulation only healed one wound on my Contemptor Dreadnought, so I had to use Chaos Familiar to swap out Glamor of Tzeentch for Prescience to get him to still hit on a 2+ instead of 3+. My Cutlists fired and killed maybe one Death Company guy, but otherwise did no damage. The Scarab Occult Terminators fired on the Sanguinary Guard, but did no damage whatsoever. Meanwhile the Contemptor Dreadnoughts and Deredeo Dreadnought fired on the Leman Russ Executioner and destroyed it - now I have all 3 points for destroying all 3 of my opponent's Heavy Support units. My Hellforged Deredeo Dreadnought then fired his twin heavy bolters and greater havoc launcher on the Death Company and wiped them out. That was a great stroke of luck on my part. I then attempted to charge my remaining 2 Scarab Occult Terminators into the tank commander, but they were both wiped out in overwatch. Meanwhile Ahriman tanked the superheated plasma blasts with his 3++ invulnerable save and made it in, but he only did like 3 wounds or so with his black staff, dropping the tank commander to 6 or so. Or was it 5 after I dealt 4 wounds? I can't remember.

Nervous Guardsmen and their Leman Russ Executioner tank facing down the twisted sorcery of Tzeentch.

The Tank Commander fell back, and Mephiston moved toward Ahriman. On the other side, Astraroth neared the poor shivering Cultists, while my opponent used a Stratagem to teleport his Sanguinary Guard away from the backfield (now that my Scarab Occult Terminators were dead) to 9" away from my Deredeo Dreadnought. But the Sanguinary Novilite was left on his own. Poor guy. Company Commander moved up to capture the Objective that Ahriman was on.

No shooting except the Sanguinary Guard, who put some wounds on my Deredeo Dreadnought. How he did that, I have no idea. I was failing my saves right and left, and by now my Deredeo Dreadnought - combined with the damage he took from the Leman Russ tanks earlier - had only 6 wounds left. Similarly, my Contemptor Dreadnought only had 4 wounds left after taking 6. Ugh. Fortunately, the Sanguinary Guard failed their charge yet again - and even lost one of their number to overwatch (so not worth it), but the same can't be said for Astraroth and Mephiston, the both of them making in and wiping out the Cultists. Astraroth, funnily enough, took one wound in overwatch. Huh. On the other hand, Ahriman tanked Mephiston's hits with his 3++ invulnerable saves and got in 2 hits...only for me to roll double ones and only do 2 damage instead of the D3 damage (which would average on 4!!!). Ugh. I was rolling very horribly. At least he survived...for now.

Turn 4

With nothing to move, since the only forces I had left were Ahriman, a single Exalted Sorcerer on foot and my 3 Hellforged Dreadnoughts, I just went straight to the psychic phase. Ahriman managed to put mortal wounds on Mephiston with the guy failing to deny any this time, and also Doombolted the Leman Russ tank commander. And he cast Diabolic Strength on himself. This time, I failed both Prescience and Temporal Manipulation, rolling 2s and 1s. Wow. My rolling was downright horrible. Fortunately, even with a degraded 3+ BS, my wounded Contemptor Dreadnought was able to finish off the tank commander and destroy him. My Deredeo Dreadnought fired everything he had on the Sanguinary Guard and wiped them out. Actually, I think he fired his twin heavy bolters and greater havoc launcher on the Sanguinary Novilite and killed him with that, because I knew the butcher arrays would kill them. The last Contemptor Dreadnought fired on Astraroth, but as he was in cover, he had a 2+ save and he tanked every shot. What the hell?! Ahriman failed to wound Mephiston this time (or rather Mephiston made his 3+ saves), and he got slain in combat. OUCH. My opponent received Slay the Warlord.

A better view of the Blood Angels and Imperial Guard army...by now, those are the units killed and he only has 4 models left on the table.

My opponent had captured 2 objectives - one with Astraroth in cover, and the other with his Company Commander. He might win this game. No, he will win this game. He already had Slay the Warlord, which means he will have 7 points if he held those objectives. I only had 1 objective and First Blood, plus the 3 points from Big Guns Never Tire from slaying 3 Heavy Support units. So I only had 7 points, which wasn't enough for me to win the game. Well, you might argue that the opponent has 7 too, but he has Linebreaker with Astraroth camping on that Objective, bringing his tally to 8.

Anyway, let's not get too ahead of myself. Astraroth moved away, trying to get into cover, whle the Company Commander and Astraroth remained still on the objective, determined to hold them until the game ended. There was nothing within range of my units for my poor opponent to shoot. He literally had 4 models left on the table. So did I, to be honest. I also had just 4 models left on the table - and 3 of them were automatons/Hellforged Dreadnoughts!

Turn 5

Then I used Smite, which did a mortal wound to Astraroth, when I realized that the dude was within range of my 24" Smite. WHAT?! Temporal Manipulation failed AGAIN. But my Deredeo Dreadnought succeeded in killing Astraroth with his butcher array, and I did a couple of wounds to the Company Commander with my twin heavy bolters. Before I could roll for my greater havoc launcher, and before my opponent even bothered to do his saves, he gave up. There was no way he could win now, he argued, pointing at my superior firepower. With Astraroth dead, he could only secure one objective, and both Mephiston and the other Company Commander were too far away from the objective in the middle. Whoops. And I haven't even fired the guns of my two Contemptor Dreadnoughts yet, nor the greater havoc launcher of my Deredeo Dreadnought, so it might be possible that I would table him. Guess he didn't want to see that happen, or didn't believe the Emperor would stop that from happening. Can't say I blame him - Mephiston only had 2 or 3 wounds left, after taking so many mortal wounds. Plus, with Astraroth's demise, he only had 3 models left on the table, and that number looked like it was poised to dive to 2...or 1...or even 0. A tabling was on the table. So...yeah. It ended in my victory, and as of that time, I was leading with 7 victory points to his...4. I was going to assume that my twin heavy bolter (and presumably greater havoc launcher) would fail to kill the company commander and give it to him.

Wow, that was a close game! I think this was the kid's best list and best performance yet! He destroyed almost my entire Thousand Sons army, annihilating all the Rubric Marines, the Scarab Occult Terminators and even defeating Ahriman in combat! And taking out the Daemon Prince and Exalted Sorcerer on disc was a great feat too! Too bad he didn't get any of my Dreadnoughts. At the rate I was failing my saves...oh, well. Furthermore, that would have been a major reduction in my firepower, and I wouldn't be able to take out those tanks otherwise. :(

All 3 Hellforged Dreadnoughts survived by the end of the game! Including the Exalted Sorcerer in charge of them!

Anyway, thanks to Tzeentch's shennigans, I managed to win this game, but just barely! By a hair's breadth! What a close game! And it was so fun! Even the kid enjoyed himself, having masterminded the massacre of my poor Rubric Marines, Sorcerers and Daemon Prince! That had to feel good!

After the game, we had a discussion on how to improve his list and gameplay, and the kid decided he would prefer Predator Annihilators to Leman Russ Annihilators. I guess that would be a good choice too. I can't wait to see what he comes up next, and I'll be happy to play against him again, and let him test out his various experimental lists, until he figures what's the best configuration for his Blood Angels army!