To recap, the first game ended with my Thousand Sons getting tabled by a Salamnders army that largely consisted of Dreadnoughts. My opponent had ten Dreadnoughts - basically he had a Battalion and a Vanguard Detachment which consisted of 2 Techmarines, a Primaris Lieutenant (who was his Warlord), a squad of 10 Intercessors, 2 squads of 5 Scouts - one with a heavy bolter and 4 sniper rifles, the other with a storm bolter sergeant and boltgun Scouts and both squads having camo-cloaks - , 3 Venerable Dreadnoughts with twin autocannons and twin lascannons, 3 Redemptor Dreadnoughts with the macro plasma incinerator, onslaught gatling cannon and hurricane bolters or storm bolters (I think), 3 Ironclad Dreadnoughts with hurricane bolters, and a Contemptor Dreadnought with multimelta and Contemptor fist. Or Dreadnought close combat weapon. You know what I mean. Wow, that's a lot of Dreadnoughts! Awesome, right?
In my first game, I played Thousand Sons, and despite fielding a Leviathan Dreadnought with grav-flux bombard and siege drill, and 2 Contemptor Dreadnoughts with butcher cannons (only one had 2 butcher cannons, the other had a chainclaw and soulburner paired with his butcher cannon), I got tabled. Understandably, my mostly anti-infantry - or to be more precise, anti-Marine Equivalent Rubric Marines and Scarab Occult Terminators couldn't stand up to an armored army. Without much anti-tank weaponry, even with the butcher cannons (well, I only had 3 in total, which meant 12 shots), I failed to kill a single Dreadnought (though I wounded quite a lot of them). Once he eliminated the three Hellforged Dreadnoughts, the rest of his walkers were free to rampage across my army, killing my Daemon Prince, Exalted Sorcerers, Ahriman, Rubric Marines and Scarab Occult Terminators. It was pretty one-sided, admittedly.
Even so, it was a ton of fun to play against. I'm not that obsessed with winning, and I loved that Dreadnought army - it did sound like something I would play if I ever go Space Marines, and I had entertained the idea before. It was so fun to play against, and it proved that it was viable in friendly and casual games! The owner was also a great guy and a lot of fun to play against too, so I asked him for another game.
This time, I opted for Knights. It would be walkers against walkers! And despite their differences in sizes, a Dreadnought can easily kill a Knight in close combat. I'm not kidding. Well, you'll see what I mean later. In any case, I took my usual House Yato Imperial Knights (they use the House Griffith Household Tradition) with their Household Retinue and Imperial Guard (sorry, I mean Astra Militarum) allies, the Draconian Armored Defenders. Unlike my Thousand Sons, who only had 3 Dreadnoughts and the rest of the points sunk into infantry and Marines, my Imperium army was mostly armored - and the way I love to play them. 3 Imperial Knights and 3 Leman Russ tanks!
So I had a Knight Gallant, a Knight Paladin and a Knight Errant in a Super-heavy Detachment. I spent a couple of Command Points to give my Knight Gallant the Knight Seneschal Warlord Trait (plus 1 attack to his characteristics) and Paragon Gauntlet, and the Knight Paladin was my Warlord (Ion Bulwark and Judgement Stormspear rocket pod relic). I also had a standard Imperial Guard Battalion of 2 Company Commanders (1 with plasma pistol, the other with bolt pistol), and 3 infantry squads (2 of them with plasma guns). Rounding them up was my Supreme Command Detachment of 3 Leman Russ Executioner tank commanders, which I spent another couple of points for the Vigilus Emperor's Fist Armored Company Detachment and Field Commander for the Warlord Trait.
We got the mission, Cut off the Head, an Eternal War mission from Chapter Approved. My opponent got the first turn, deployed first, and I deployed everything near the back to make sure I didn't get charged first turn (even my Knight Gallant hung back). I failed to seize the Initiative, and my opponent began!
Oh, right. My opponent placed his intel points on his 2 techmarines and Primaris Lieutenant. Knowing that my Knights will draw a lot of fire and be huge fire-magnets, I designated my 2 Company Commanders and Vigilus Tank Commander as the intel points instead, and had them all hang back. Not that it worked, given how the Scouts all scouted forward. But my Company Commanders were out of range of the sniper rifles, so yay.
Turn 1
My opponent had the first Venerable Dreadnought shoot at my Knight Gallant, and I used Rotate Ion Shields to prevent a few shots. The Ironclad Dreadnoughts and Contemptor Dreadnought advanced because they were out of range of anything, and the other Venerable Dreadnoughts and the Redemptor Dreadnoughts all fired on my poor Knight Errant. He didn't roll very well for the macro plasma incinerators, but they did enough damage to bring the Knight Errant down to 6 points, which was his last bracket. Ouch. However, other than putting maybe 2 or 3 wounds on my Knight Gallant, he didn't do anything. The Scouts with sniper rifles and Hellfire Rounds Stratagem (Heavy Bolter that does mortal wounds) contributed to bringing the poor Knight Errant down to 6 wounds, but the other Scout squad killed...maybe 2 of my Guardsmen (I actually made 3 5+ armor saves) with their boltguns and storm bolter. Then they charged in and clubbed another 3 to death (didn't fare as well with my saves in melee). My Guardsmen fought back and killed a single Scout with a bayonet (how funny), and even though they lost half their squad, I rolled a 2 for morale and they were fine. Nobody ran away.
With none of my units dead, not even my Knight Errant who was still on 6 wounds, my opponent failed to get First Strike.
My turn came, and I had my smoking Knight Errant move closer, but with him on his last bracket, he could only move 6". Furthermore, he was a Questor Imperialis and not Questor Mechanicus, so he couldn't use the Machine Spirit Resurgent Stratagem as my opponent suggested (I told you he is a great guy). My Knight Gallant also moved forward, so yay. Shooting for my Knights was pretty poor. My Knight Errant, as usual, did absolutely nothing with his thermal cannon. On the day I finally rolled a 4 instead of a 1, he missed all of his shots (to be fair, he was hitting on 5+, but you would think he could at least score a single hit...). Heavy stubbers did nothing, as usual, for both the Knight Errant and Knight Gallant. My Knight Paladin fired his rapid-fire battle cannon and totally fluffed his shots, and it was only his Judgement Stormspear rocket pod that hit and wounded...only for me to roll a 1 and a 2 for the D6 damage and do a total of 3 wounds to a single Venerable Dreadnought. My Knights were messing with me, for sure.
On the other hand, my Guardsmen had a lot more luck. Despite falling back, I had the surviving 5 Guardsmen fire their lasguns on the Scouts and I actually killed 1 of them with lasgun fire (well, 4+ save kind of...sucks and they were in the open instead of in cover after trying to charge my Guardsmen and kill them in melee). Unfortunately, the plasmagunner blew himself up by rolling a 1. Ouch. The Company Commander killed another Scout with his plasma pistol, then ordered the second infantry squad to First Rank, Fire! Second Rank, Fire! However, before I even started rolling for the Rapid Fire 4 lasguns in rapid fire range, my plasmagunner fired and killed both surviving Scouts with his supercharged plasma (this squad stood still, so they got to re-roll ones, unlike the other squad). Welp...plasma guns are awesome...when they don't blow up in your face anyway. That earned me First Strike! WOOHOO!
My Leman Russ Executioner tanks, in contrast to my failed Knights, had a great round of shooting, destroying a single Redemptor Dreadnought, reducing a second one to 3 wounds and the third one to 5 wounds (putting 8 on him). The Knight Errant charged the Ironclad Dreadnoughts, and failed his charge. At least he didn't take any wounds on Overwatch. In contrast, when my Knight Gallant charged, he took a couple of wounds - I think he had taken like 7 wounds? He made it into both Ironclad Dreadnoughts, crushed both of them with his Thunderstrike Gauntlet, picked them up and threw them at the poor Techmarine (I rolled 2 4+). Initially I did only a single mortal wound, but the second Ironclad Dreadnought that was chucked at him did 3 mortal wounds and I killed a Character with intel points. Yay. Then I consolidated into the Intercessors, which was a bad mistake, for the Sergeant with Power Fist (and they were Indominus Intercessor Veterans with extra attacks) put another few wounds on him, bringing him to 15 wounds left or so. I think.
Turn 2
Neither of us had anybody in the objective at the start of the battle round, so neither of us gained any victory points. I did get 1 for First Strike, though, so yay? My opponent moved his Lieutenant forward, probably to engage the Knight Gallant in melee with his thunder hammer or something. The Contemptor Dreadnought also moved forward, as did the last Ironclad Dreadnought. The Redemptor Dreadnoughts also moved, and the surviving (second) Techmarine repaired one of them, bringing the one with 5 wounds to 7 wounds remaining and restoring his upper bracket stats. The Venerable Dreadnought fired upon my Knight Paladin, who had moved out, but with a 3++ invulnerable save (Rotate Ion Shields!), they did maybe a couple of damage at most. The other Dreadnoughts finally destroyed my Knight Errant through shooting while the other guy was in prime position to destroy one of my Leman Russ Executioner tanks. Funnily enough, the wounded Redemptor Dreadnought moved and rolled a 1 and a 2, and did 2 mortal wounds to himself despite the Salamander re-roll (he rolled a 1 again). Ouch. He had just one wound left. Oh, the Contemptor Dreadnought fired with his multimelta but did nothing to my Knight Paladin. Instead, it was the combi-bolter that put a single wound on him. Welp, I would take a single wound over the multi-melta multi-damage. As for my Guardsmen, the Ironclad Dreadnought killed 5 in the full, unscathed plasma squad, leaving 5. Again.
The Ironclad Dreadnought charged in and killed my Knight Gallant with his 4 attacks at AP -4 and 4 damage each. I used the Noble Sacrifice Stratagem, but it turned out I didn't have to, for I rolled a 6 and I blew up everything in the area. The Ironclad Dreadnought only took a single wound (damn it!), but the Intercessors took 3 mortal wounds, as did the Primaris Lieutenant. Ouch. And that was the Warlord too. The Redemptor Dreadnought charged and destroyed my Leman Russ Executioner tank and despite me using the Defensive Gunners Stratagem, I took about only 2 wounds off him in overwatch. I also completely forgot about the Vigilus Warlord Trait (he was within 6" of my field commander) so I might actually do more if I re-rolled. Whoops. On the other hand, my opponent completely forgot about his surviving squad of sniper scouts so it evened out. Maybe? The Contemptor Dreadnought ran in and smashed my Knight Paladin in combat, reducing him to about 6 wounds or so. I stomped on him, and of course, he only did 9 damage in total, leaving the Contemptor Dreadnought with 1 wound and failing to kill him. Just my luck. On the bright side, I rolled a 2 for morale and lost no Guardsmen despite losing 5 out of 10 of the second squad, and my plasmagunner survived.
With my firepower reduced, I tried to fight back as much as I could, and my Leman Russ Executioner tanks succeeded in killing both Redemptor Dreadnoughts as well as wiping out the Intercessors. It was funny. I missed with one of the lascannons and destroyed the guy with 1 wound with the plasma cannons. Then I decided to fire my lascannon at the Redemptor Dreadnought with 5 wounds left and all the plasma at the Intercessors...only for me to roll a 6 for my lascannon damage and destroyed the final Redemptor Dreadnought. The plasma cannons, as expected, wiped out the Intercessors, especially since I supercharged. My Knight Paladin had stepped out of the way and shot at the Ironclad Dreadnought, and did a total of 1 damage. Kind of pathetic if you think about it, even if he was shooting on a 5+. The plasmagunner who killed the 2 Scouts earlier stepped up and destroyed the Contemptor Dreadnought before any of my First Rank, Fire! Second Rank, Fire! lasgun Guardsmen could fire a single shot. That plasmagunner deserves a promotion.
I then had my Knight Paladin charge the Ironclad Dreadnought, and with 5 Reaper Chainsword attacks hitting on 5+, at least 2 got through, and boom! The Ironclad Dreadnought was dead. 6 damage flat, and as he already took a total of 2 wounds (1 from the Knight Gallant explosion, and 1 from the shooting of the rapid-fire battle cannon and Stormspear rocket pod, and I think it was the Judgement relic that hit and wounded him, only for me to roll a 1 for damage), that was enough for me to kill him. Yay. Funnily enough, it seems my Knights fail at shooting but rock in melee. I should have made all of them Gallants instead of upgrading my Knight Paladin into a Knight Crusader. Oh well. :'(
Turn 3
At the start of the battle round, because my opponent had his Primaris Lieutenant on the objective, he gained 1 Victory Point. And I didn't gain any...figures. So the score was 1-1. Hmm...this didn't look good for me, for he had killed 2 of my Knights and my last Knight, who was my Warlord, was on his last bracket and looked likely to die this turn. He also killed 1 of my Leman Russ tanks and I had 2 Executioners left. Well, that's actually pretty good, considering that all he had left were his 3 Venerable Dreadnoughts, which meant I killed 7 Dreadnoughts while losing 2 Knights and a tank. Well, a roughly equal trade, considering.
Realizing that I would get 3 intel points this turn if he focused on my Knight and left my tank commander alone, my opponent began moving his Venerable Dreadnoughts up. I think he did maybe 4 damage to my Knight Paladin, leaving him with 2 wounds? But he took 6 wounds off one of my Leman Russ Executioner tank, and 4 wounds to the other, leaving him with 7 wounds or so. He also used the sniper rifles and Hellfire Stratagem with his Scouts, but he completely missed his Heavy Bolter shot twice - even with the Salamander re-roll, so my Field Commander survived with 7 wounds. Nice.
First, I used a Stratagem (Jury Rigged) to bring my damaged Tank Commander back to 7 wounds to get him back to his upper bracket. I retaliated by firing back at the Venerable Dreadnoughts, and despite my best attempts, I only managed to kill 1 Venerable Dreadnought while putting a few wounds on the other two...I think. I can't remember, but I think I did succeed in killing at least one Venerable Dreadnought. As for my Knight Paladin, I had him shoot all his weapons at the Primaris Lieutenant, and despite his storm shield giving him a 3++ invulnerable save, I killed him and earned Slay the Warlord. I then charged the last Techmarine, but despite having 15 Stomps (I think I only rolled 12 and competely forgot about the House Griffith rule giving me an extra attack), the Techmarine was left with 1 wound - just like the Contemptor Dreadnought. And woe be me, the Techmarine swung back with his servo-arm and destroyed my Knight Paladin, thus earning my opponent Slay the Warlord. I tried to trigger an explosion with Noble Sacrifice, but I wasted the 2 Command Points by rolling a 2. Nope...not happening.
At least I gained 3 Victory Points, which meant I was up 4 against my opponent's 3 (he gained an intel Victory Point with his last surviving Techmarine).
Turn 4
The Venerable Dreadnoughts continued moving, and they as well as the Scouts fired everything they had into my Field Commander, who survived with just 2 wounds remaining. I think they damaged the other guy as well, but I can't remember. What I do remember is that I killed both Venerable Dreadnoughts with both my Leman Russ Executioner tanks, and the score became 7 to my opponent's 4 because my 3 Characters with Intel points were still alive.
Turn 5
Getting desperate in trying to kill my Leman Russ Executioner field commander, but completely out of Command Points (so no more Hellfire Stratagem for mortal wounds), my opponent moved the Techmarine up to get Linebreaker, and when the Sniper rifles and heavy bolter failed to wound the Leman Russ field commander, the Techmarine charged and attacked with the servo-arm that had brought down a mighty Knight (earlier, he fired with his plasma pistol, flamer and storm bolter and failed to wound even with Salamander re-roll). Alas, I rolled a 5 for the armor save (the servo-arm was only AP -2), so despite only needing one attack (which was 2 damage) to get through to kill my Field Commander, the Techmarine failed. Whoops. Oh, and I completely forgot about the damned Field Commander Warlord Trait. I missed the overwatch mostly, but I forgot to reroll them. And that guy was the Field Commander himself. Well, I was winning at this point, so whatever. But I've to remember this in future.
The next thing my opponent knew, my Field Commander fell back, and my last Leman Russ Executioner tank unleashed plasma hell on him, killing the Techmarine and my opponent's last Intel Point Character, and also denying him Linebreaker. The score was now 10 to 4 because all my Characters were still alive, and with only a single squad of Scouts left in the game (which I would most likely vaporize next turn with my last Leman Russ tank, even if they had 2+ cover save with their camo-cloaks), my opponent surrendered. Even if it went on, the lead would stretch because I had at least 2 Company Commanders with the Intel points out of range and out of sight, and I would continue to accumulate more Victory Points while my opponent simply had no way of gaining Victory Points at all with all his Characters dead. I was already ahead by 6 points at this juncture, and it would only grow to 8 even if he somehow succeeded in killing my Field Commander.
So it ended in my victory, but admittedly it was an extremely close game. I had only 2 Leman Russ tanks left (effectively 1, since the Field Commander was on 2 wounds), and had lost all my Knights. Traded them for the Dreadnoughts. Dreadnoughts are scary, especially in close combat. The Ironclad Dreadnought destroyed a Knight Gallant while the Contemptor Dreadnought brought my Knight Paladin down to his last bracket. Ouch. I think my opponent will get wiser and not bunch his Ironclad Dreadnoughts together for my Knight Gallant to kill both of them at the same time. And I should remember my Warlord Trait for Field Commander and not to consolidate into Intercessors. Ouch.
Anyway, it was a fun game and very enjoyable! I hope to play against the ten Dreadnoughts again! Maybe this time with a new list!
Cool man. Sounded like fun.
ReplyDeleteIt certainly was!
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