Sword Brethren

Having gotten the new Sword Brethren and Black Templars Upgrade Kit yesterday (or Saturday night, now that it's Monday morning), I went and assembled them. I also made use of the upgrade kit to assemble two Assault Intercessors, as well as making use of parts from the Black Templars Army Set - the extras from the Primaris Crusader squad. So I now have a Sergeant with a Power Fist - I plan to use him as a Relic Bearer, hence all the fancy stuff on him right now.

As for the Sword Brethren, I assembled a single Castellan and gave him the Sword of Judgement. The other Sword Brethren are assembled with a plasma pistol, a pyre pistol, two power swords, a power axe and a thunder hammer. There might only be four of them right now, but I'll be putting the Sword Brethren from the Primaris Crusader squad in the Sword Brethren to make them a 5-men squad and still have the Castellan. Why bother with Sword Brethren when Bladeguard Veterans are so much better? Well, the answer is Crusade. My Primaris Crusader squad will be promoted soon - the Neophytes will become Assault Intercessors while the Initiates will become Sword Brethren. The Sword Brethren commanding them will be promoted to a Castellan. It's all for fluff and narrative, really. It'll be fun, or so I hope.

Anyway, that's all I have for now. Until then!

Defense of Gideon Fields

And so we begin Phase 2 of the Gydisk Sigma Campaign! After a narrow Imperial victory in Hive Gaia, the Imperium now moves out to fefend the Gideon Fields from planetary invasion forces. Tyranid hordes rain down on the biomass rich fields in order to spawn more of their ravenous brethren, and the Imperium must put a halt to their feeding frenzy, lest Hive Fleet Leviathan overwhelms them with sheer numbers. In addition to the invading Tyranids, the forces of Chaos have also struck in order to destabilize the world, having taken advantage of the chaos to disrupt the defense and bring ruin to the Imperium.

The Death Guard, led by Rhegorn, Chosen of the Seventh, broought the plague to Gydisk Sigma, intending to sow the seeds of the Bloom to infect the world and spread Grandfather Nurgle's gifts to the material universe. They were aided by forces of the Blood Pact, the Traitor Guard regiment besieging the beleageuered Imperial forces near the fields in an attempt to distract them from the real threat - the Tyranids. Fortunately, the Grey Knights appeared, their Strike Cruiser hurtling through the Warp to answer to the threat of Chaos. Having foreseen the ill effects of the Bloom, two Brotherhoods joined forces to combat the Death Guard. Think Chaos Gate, heh.

In any event, the Grey Knights succeeded in containing the Death Guard and wiping them out, but at great cost. The Grey Knight strike force was decimated, with only two Dreadknights and a single Techmarine surviving the vicious battle. The rest of the valiant Knights had fallen in battle, overwhelmed by sickness and rot.

The presence of the Grey Knights remained unknown to the defenders of Gydisk Sigma. The Argent 388th Regiment fought a bloody battle against the Blood Pact, with mechanized forces and armor dueling on the open fields dotted with ruins. A single Argent Baneblade was able to stem the tide, though the two Guard forces ground out to a bloody stalemate. Most of the infantry and Leman Russ tanks were annihilated, with only the Baneblade and a few light tanks remaining. Neither could prevail over the other, and both forces retreated without a victor in sight. On the other hand, the stalemate meant that neither force was defeated either.

While the Loyalist Argent Imperial Guard held the Traitor Guard regiment at bay, the Black Templars confronted the invading Tyranids in Gideon Fields. Mobilizing heavy armor and dispatching Redemptor Dreadnoughts, they were able to halt the teeming tide of chitin and claws. The two Repulsor Executioners blasted holes in the Tyranid ranks, incinerating monsters and light creatures alike, while the Redemptor Dreadnoughts punched bloody holes through a Maleceptor and a Carnifex. Alas, the Emperor's Champion fell when he confronted the Broodlord that led the brood, his body torn apart by its claws. Fortunately, the Marshal of the Crusade avenged him, hacking down the triumphant Broodlord in turn before turning his wrath upon the Termagaunts that were swarming over his Badeguard Veterans. The Black Templars suffered losses, with one of the ancients falling to the Broodlord as well, but they eventually prevailed and drove the Tyranids out of Gideon Fields.

However, this simply marked the beginning. The Tyranids' numbers were endless, and the Traitors continue to scheme in the shadows. The Death Guard might have retreated for now, but the Thousand Sons have plotted a dark strategy while rallying the surviving Blood Pact to their cause. With this victory, the Imperium has earned a slight reprieve, but there is no telling when the next invasion wave will land. And when it does, they would find their forces depleted yet again against the countless hordes of the swarm.

For now, the score stands at Defenders: 14 Attackers: 6. Looking forward to the next Crusade battle in two weeks!

Oh, and I built a second Repulsor Executioner! Even gave it the multimelta upgrade! Because Black Templars, yeah.

Gladius

Oh, a new Adeptus Mechanicus DLC has been released for Slitherine's game, Gladius: Relics of War. Just thought you guys would want to know.

Here's the link to the Steam Store.

Renegade Open Major 2021 Day 2

 Day 2 of the Renegade Open Major! YAY! Or...ugh. Depending on how you look at it. Well, I mostly enjoyed myself, so I think yay is right. Anyway, I had 3 matches today, so I had best get to it.

First mission was Surround and Destroy, and I was up against Freebootas Orks. The one with SpeedWaaagh! and lots of buggies, as well as a pair of bombas or planes. Needless to say, I got crushed by the Green Tide. I can't remember what happened. Despite going first, I failed to kill the two planes, but instead I lost both Armigers Moirax and maybe a Contemptor Dreadnought as well as 3 Bladeguard Veterans. Ouch. The poor Knight Castellan was reduced to 4 wounds. I tried to fight back, but I only killed like 2 planes in the second turn and I couldn't even kill the damned Grots. Sigh. Um, I killed two Mek guns in the first turn, and that was pretty much all I could do. Maybe I wiped out a squad of Kommandoes, but yeah, that's about it.

The Deffkill Wartrike killed my Knight Castellan with a meltagun, and that's all I could do. Needless to say, he proceeded to shoot my Bladeguard Veterans and Terminators off the board. The only survivor by turn 4 was the Emperor's Champion, and while he charged the Stormboyz, he...rolled 5 1s and 2s for his wound rolls and killed only a single Stormboyz, taking 4 wounds in return. Both times I used the Stratagem to prevent my opponent from falling back on a 4+, only to roll a 1 and a 2 both times (first was the Terminator squad and the single Grot, second was the Emperor's Champion and the Stormboyz). Again, they shot the Emperor's Champion off the board and I was tabled by turn 4.

That was brutal. I lost the game 49 to 89, and it was just...painful. Yeah, very painful. I don't know what to say, man. S happened. After losing 35-92 to Grey Knights yesterday, I got tabled by Orks on turn 4. Well, that was fine. It's just a game, and I was determined to turn my fortunes around somehow. On the bright side, it meant I didn't have to play Grey Knights and super strong players for my last 2 games, so that gave me hope. Also, I was there to roll dice and have fun (though one-sided games are...ouch). So I hung in there and believed in the God-Emperor.

The second mission today was Sweep and Clear. This time, I was up against a Thousand Sons player. This one I could remember the list of because I'm also a Thousand Sons player and I'm familiar with their units. His list looked something like this:

Thousand Sons Battalion (Cult of Time)

Exalted Sorcerer, Warlord, gives extra Cabal Points

Ahzek Ahriman

Infernal Master

Sorcerer

2x10 Rubric Marines

5 Rubric Marines

2 Rhinos

2 Forgefiends with ectoplasma cannons

10 Cultists

10 Scarab Occult Terminators

I think that's about it? In any event, I went first and didn't shoot much because everything was obscured. I did grab the center objective to give me the Direct Assault secondary, so yay. Then my opponent moved everything up, and maybe put 3 wounds on an Armiger Moirax and perhaps a couple of wounds on a Contemptor Dreadnought, but otherwise I made most of my saves.

Second turn happened, and it was brutal. Basically I shot one Forgefiend off the board, destroyed a Rhino, and then charged the 5-men Rubric Marines squad and killed them with my Emperor's Champion, Contemptor Dreadnought and Bladeguard Veterans. The other Contemptor Dreadnought charged and killed a couple of Rubric Marines, as did the Armiger Moirax, from a 10-men Rubric Marine squad, reducing it slowly. I think that was all I could do because the Marshal in Terminator Armor and Terminators failed their charge.

Um, the other Forgefiend shot the Terminators and I made a hell lot of saves, 5 out of 6 4++ invulnerable saves. Wow. That wasn't supposed to happened. I only lost 1 Terminator. The Rubric Marines continued to fight the Contemptor Dreadnought, slowly grinding them down, while the Scarab Occult Terminators dropped in, and despite using Veterans of the Long War, did only a little bit of damage against the Knight Castellan, then failed their charge as well. Yikes. The Cultists charged the Terminators and got wiped out by them and the Marshal in Terminator armor. Oh, well. They had no choice because I was going to charge them next turn anyway.

Things got bad to worse for my opponent, for my Armiger Moirax and Knight Castellan wiped out the Scarab Occult Terminators. The Contemptor Dreadnought eventually killed the Rubric Marines while the Terminators charged and killed the Infernal Master. The second Contemptor Dreadnought killed Ahriman with his multimelta, and the Emperor's Champion charged and killed the Sorcerer in combat. The other Armiger Moirax continued chewing away at the last squad of 10 Rubric Marines.

At this point, my opponent called it. It was clear that the Emperor's Champion and Terminators would proceed to kill the remaining Forgefiend and Exalted Sorcerer. I managed to convince him to try shooting my Terminators, and he did...only for me to make all my saves. Oh...that wasn't good for him. His Rubric Marines failed to kill the Armiger Moirax in shooting and combat, bringing him down to 4 or 5 wounds (I think?). We then simulated him retreating and my Knight Castellan shooting, and he did wipe out the remaining Rubric Marines.

So yeah...that maxed me out on Abhor the Witch, I had a lot for Assassinate (13, I think?) and I got max on Direct Assault because I was holding both the opponent's objective and the center. In the end, I won the game 98 to 35 points. That was...not fair. I dislike one-sided games, even if I'm winning. I know how it feels, having suffered a crushing defeat twice in a row, and it just...doesn't feel good, even if I scored a victory. Sigh. I feel sorry for the Thousand Sons player. I hope he had better luck in the next game.

The third match was Overrun, and I was matched against an Ultramarines player. At first, I thought I would be playing against his son, but it turned out that his father was going to play against an opponent he already fought against, so...yeah. A pity, because his son had awesome converted Ork-ized Mechanicus and Knights. I wanted to play against Knights! NOOOO!!!

Ultramarines are cool too, though, and I saw Roboute Guilliman once more. Um, his list looks like this:

Ultramarines Battalion

Tigirus (however you spell his name)

Primaris Chaplain on bike

2x2 Victrix Guard

Apocethary

5 Infiltrators

10 Intercessors

5 Vanguard Veterans

5 Hellblasters

6 Eradicators

5 Devastators

Ultramarines Supreme Command

Roboute Guilliman

Somehow I got first, but I didn't do a lot of shooting. I think I maybe killed 3 Hellblasters and that was about it. Oh, I did wipe out 10 Intercessors despite them having transhuman physiology. Major victory there, I suppose. Then the Devastators put a ton of wounds on the Knight Castellan, bringing him down to 17 wounds, while the Eradicators murdered a Contemptor Dreadnought. The Knight Castellan retaliated by killing the Devastators, and I think the Armiger Moirax killed a couple of Eradicators? The other maybe missed his shots while the Contemptor Dreadnought charged the Primaris Chaplain. The Terminators did manage to make their charge after deep striking, but the Victrix Guard heroically intervened and I only killed maybe another Eradicator while not doing much. The Contemptor Dreadnought did 3 wounds to the Primaris Chaplain while the Terminators mostly survived.

Then the apocethary brought back an Eradicator. They killed maybe like 4 Terminators, leaving just the Sergeant, then Guilliman charged in and killed the Marshal. The Terminator killed another Eradicator - 3 of them charging in, and that's about it. The Vanguard Veterans charged and made it into the Bladeguard Veterans, but I only killed 2 because of poor rolling. Yikes. They made their saves against the lightning claws and power fists, though. Mostly. The Primaris Chaplain maybe took another 3 wounds. Can't remember.

I had to use a Stratagem to make the Bladeguard Veterans Objective Secured to keep that objective in my backfield while maintaining my banner. Meanwhile the Contemptor Dreadnought finally killed the Primaris Chaplain with his multimelta, and the Armiger Moirax killed the Victrix Guard while the Knight Castellan killed the Eradicators. I had the Contemptor Dreadnought charge in and fail to do anything to the Victrix Guard, and while I killed another Eradicator (who was promptly brought back to life), the Terminator died to Guilliman. The Vanguard Veterans killed a Bladeguard Veteran and I killed 2 back, still rolling badly and failing to finish them off. Ugh. The Emperor's Champion charged and killed 3 Infiltrators and took maybe a wound in return.

The Victrix Guard slowly wore the Contemptor Dreadnought down in combat, and the Eradicators and Hellblasters killed one of my Armiger Moirax. Yikes. I think Guilliman proceeded to kill the Emperor's Champion by shooting him to death and I failed a bunch of invulnerable saves. That was bad. Fortunately, I finally killed the Vanguard Veteran Sergeant with the Bladeguard Veterans' power swords. I then used a Stratagem to make my Contemptor Dreadnought  Objective Secured to steal it from the Victrix Guard, swinging the primary objectives scoring in my favor - I scored 15, and my opponent scored 5 while they lost the banner there. Phew! The Knight Castellan fired and did a total of 6 wounds to Guilliman, who made most of his 3++ saves. It didn't help that I rolled horribly too. Then the Victrix Guard fell back and I think Tigurus smited the Contemptor Dreadnought to death, with me failing to make the 5+++ against mortal wounds. The Eradicators then destroyed my second Armiger Moirax.

I had my Knight Castellan run away in the last turn to avoid the Eradicators. I have no choice. I couldn't let him score Bring it Down. And that was pretty much game. Fortunately, I somehow managed to scrape a victory, scoring 87 to 79. That Objective Secured Stratagem really helped me a ton, otherwise I would have lost that game! Wow...still a really great game. I prefer close games like this to one-sided victories or defeats!

Thus I ended my Renegade Open Major with 3 losses and 3 wins. 50% win-rate! That's good enough for me. I was tied with someone for 29th place, but I guess I got 30th place by virtue of my name starting with T (so below him in alphabetical order). Not that I care. I wasn't going to win anything anyway. I'm pleased with the result!

Maybe next time I'll try playing a pure list, though I doubt it would have changed anything in any of today's games. The Orks would still have wiped me out no matter what, and...I won against the Thousand Sons and Ultramarines, so nothing to say there. Probably having Objective Secured units and forcing Guilliman to only wound on 3+s (along with the Eradicators' meltas) would have helped me a lot, but...I don't know. It's tough to say. Anyway, this was a fun list, and I like both Knights and Black Templars. I'll see what I can do next time, though!

Renegade Open Major Tournament 2021

The first day for the Renegade Open Major tournament was held today! I had 3 games today, and like usual, I'll just run through the highlights. I can't remember much that happened and I'm exhausted anyway, so yeah.

The first game was Retrieval and I was up against Ultramarines. I think he had Roboute Guilliman, a Redemptor Dreadnought, 3 Suppressors, 2 Invictor Tactical Warsuits and 2 Relic Contemptor Dreadnoughts with volkite culverins (because...yeah). Probably a bunch of Infiltrators and Intercessors thrown in here and there for a Battalion, and...uh, yeah.

My list was Knights and Black Templars, so a Knight Castellan and 2 Armigers Moirax. You know the drill by now. The Black Templars was a Marshal in Terminator Armor, 5 Assault Terminators, 2 Contemptor Dreadnoughts (the regular ones with multimeltas and fists), and 3 squads of 3 Bladeguard Veterans.

There was a lot of shooting, and I think I destroyed an Invictor Tactical Warsuit and heavily wounded the 2 Contemptor Dreadnoughts while going first. Not an effective shooting turn, whoops. I lost like an Armiger or something, can't remember if I lost my Contemptor Dreadnoughts. In the end, the both of us almost wiped each other out, with me only having a Knight Castellan and Emperor's Champion left. Hilariously enough, after my Knight Castellan destroyed Guilliman in shooting, he came back to life on a 4+...only for my Emperor's Champion to charge into him and kill him in combat. On the other side of the table, my opponent had like 5 Intercessors or so left, plus Servitors. I killed everything else, so yay. But I also lost everything else except my Knight Castellan and Emperor's Champion. I lost the game on objectives, scoring 73 to 85, and it was a close game. Pretty fun, and even though I lost, I was pretty happy that the Emperor's Champion triumphed over Guilliman in close combat. That was hilarious. Oh, I think the Emperor's Champion also killed a Callidus Assassin in combat too. Whoops! Ha ha ha.

The second game was Priority Target, and my opponent was Adeptus Mechanicus - a Veteran Skitarii Cohort from Mars, in fact. He had like 2 Skitarii Marshals, a Tech-priest Manipulus, 20 Skitarii Rangers, 2 squads of 10 Vanguard, 2 squadrons of 2 Ironstriders Ballistarii with autocannons, 2 Stratoraptors, 5 Sicarian Infiltrators, 10 Sicarian Ruststalkers, 2 Onager Dunecrawlers with neutron lasers and that's about it...I think.

It was another close game, with the Stratoraptors, Ironstriders Ballistarii and Onager Dunecrawlers killing all of my Armiger Knights Moirax and Contemptor Dreadnoughts. On the other hand, the Ruststalkers and shooting from the Rangers killed 2 squads of Bladeguard Veterans and the Emperor's Champion, who fell to the Ruststalkers. Ouch. Only one Bladeguard Veteran Sergeant out of the 9 survived, but he managed to hold an objective despite being charged by Skitarii Vanguard. My Knight Castellan managed to slowly kill everything, and my Assault Terminators survived. By the end of the game, my opponent only had 2 Skitarii Marshals and the Tech-priest Manipulus left, along with several Skitarii Vanguard who were holding the backfield. On the other hand, I still had my Knight Castellan, Bladeguard Veteran Sergeant, Marshal in Terminator Armor an Assault Terminators, which allowed me to hold more objectives. It was another tight, close back and forth game, but somehow I managed to squeak out a win 79 to 70. Phew. Finally one victory! Yay!

The third game (and last for today) was Vital Intelligence, and I was up against Grey Knights. 5 Dreadknights - 2 Grand Masters in Dreadknight and 3 normal Dreadknights, along with 5 GK in Strike Squad and 30 Interceptors, and 2 Techmarines. No, I'm not kidding. He really had 30 Interceptors.

Not going to say much about this game other than I was utterly destroyed. The Grey Knights had free reign all over the table and wrecked my Knights so hard it wasn't funny. The Contemptor Dreadnoughts and Knights were all destroyed by turn 4, with the Knight Castellan getting heavily damaged by a Grand Master in Dreadknight while the Interceptors killed him. My shooting wasn't very effective - though my Emperor's Champion did kill the other Grand Master in Dreadknight with his rerolls against Characters, heh. And that guy had a 3++ invulnerable save too. On the other hand, it took shooting from my surviving Armiger Moirax to kill the other Grand Master, and he died soon after. I managed to destroy 4 out of 5 Dreadknights, but it wasn't enough.

The Bladeguard Veterans, on the other hand, were hilariously tough as nails. They weathered storm bolter shooting with their 2+ armor save (thanks to storm shields) and survived round after round of combat with the Interceptors' force weapons. One squad of 3 survived and killed one squad of Interceptors before the Sergeant was finally taken out by a second Interceptor squad. And they survived a ton of mortal wounds from Smite too! Hah! Another Bladeguard Veteran survived and managed to hold onto my objective before raising a banner for the second time. The Assault Terminators survived and killed a Techmarine after the Marshal in Terminator Armor failed to do a single thing (ugh), rolling 2 1s for his hits, and then rolling 2 1s for wounds. I don't know what to say. In any event, yeah...that sucked like hell. Despite doing my best to raise banners here and there, I wasn't able to get any points.

In the end I lost the game 35 to 92. That was...rough. Well...I guess we live and learn.

I'm not sure what to do, but I guess I would have benefited by playing pure Knights or pure Black Templars. There were times when I could really have used the Armiger's Objective Secured during Vital Intelligence to claim an objective, but...yeah. And I think having one of the other stuff like Abhor the Witch would have helped me greatly against the Grey Knights (looking at you, Marshal in Terminator Armor, though my Bladeguard Veterans could have used the re-rolls too). Next time...yeah. Next time.

Anyway, I have another 3 rounds to go tomorrow, and though I doubt I'll win any of them (maybe I'll win just 1 more game and lose the other 2, considering my pitiful skill level), I'll continue to do my best. But seriously, soup is penalized so much and it's probably much better to go pure Knights or pure Black Templars. I enjoy the playstyles of both, but yeah. Oh, well. We'll see. Until then!

Renegade 2021 Team Tournament and Knight Joust

The Renegade Open has begun! 2021 Renegade! YAY! I registered for the Team Tournament, Knight Joust and the GT, so we began the team tournament today. I'm exhausted and I need to wake up early for the team tournament tomorrow, so I won't write too much in detail, just the highlights and stuff. Besides, I don't think many people actually read my blog, and even if they do, they don't want to read a super-long post describing all three team matches in a super elaborate manner, and a Knight Joust on top of that.

So I'll just roughly explain my teammate's list. This being a team doubles tournament, I found a friend to team up with me for today's event. He brought Death Guard, using the Terminus Est Strike Force from Warzone Charadon, and I think it looked something like this:

Lord of Contagion

Tallyman

Foul Blightspawn

2 x 5 Blightlord Terminators

20 Poxwalkers

20 Poxwalkers

3 Possessed

1 Possessed

Yeah, I think that was all he had. 1,000 points, Terminus Est, no vehicles allowed. As for me, I brought Imperial Knights - you probably know the drill by now if you've been following my blog. Questor Mechanicus, Glorified History and Blessed Arms. Even better, because I'm bringing nothing but Knights, my Armigers gain Objective Secured. That's just awesome. I brought a single Knight Castellan with Cold Eradication and Cawl's Wrath, and 2 Armiger Moiraxes with dual graviton pulsars. How would they work out? I guess we'll find out!

The first game was Surround and Destroy, I believe. We are Team T and T (because both my teammate and I have first names starting with T, so...I randomly came up with that). We were matched up against Customarines, which was two guys bringing Adeptus Custodes and Ravenwing. The Adeptus Custodes had 2 Gladius Dreadnoughts, 3x3 Custodian Guards and a Shield Captain on Jetbike. Can't remember if he had anything else, but yeah. Ravenwing brought a lot of Land Speeders - I think about 7? That's in addition to a ton of bikers and a Chaplain on a bike.

The first turn didn't go so well for my team because my Knights didn't do much with their shooting, maybe wounding the Gladius Dreadnoughts. And then my Armiger tanked a ton of shooting from the Land Speeders' multimeltas because of Rotate Ion Shields. My teammate and I proceeded to kill a ton of stuff, destroying almost all the jetbikes between the Knight Castellan's shots, the Armigers' shots, the Knight Castellan's Titanic Feet and the Blightlord Terminators. I also destroyed both Gladius Dreadnoughts with shooting in the second turn, which was just awesome. From there, the Ravenwing and Custodes struggled, with the 2 squads of Custodian guards running away to hide from my Knight Castellan (ha ha!). The two Armigers died to multimelta shots from the surviving Land Speeders before the Death Guard and Knight Castellan wiped them out - apparently, I used up all my luck making the saves for the first Armiger Moirax in the first turn. One Armiger Moirax did kill a squad of 3 Custodian Guards before he died, though, so yay? The Shield Captain on jetbike fell to the Terminators, and the Chaplain on bike died to the Biologus Putrifier's overwatch and attacks (making a roll of 2 for an armor save when he only had 1 wound remaining). That was...bad. By the 5th turn, the two squads of Custodian Guards were running around staying on the objectives and hiding behind obscuring cover so that my Knight Castellan wouldn't shoot at them. Everything else, including the bikers and land speeders, died.

The game ended 83-65 in my team's favor. Wow, that was really close! Even though we managed to win, the Custodes and Ravenwing grabbed a lot of points from holding objectives, the two squads not dying and a ton of other stuff.

The second game was Overrun. This time we were pitted against two ladies from Lore Unfriendly, fielding T'au (Farsight Enclaves) and Black Templars. I learned a lot from the Black Templars player, hopefully I can put those lessons in practice tomorrow and Sunday. I think the T'au player had a Riptide, a Forge World battlesuit (the one with the plasma flamer), a Cold Star Commander, Farsight, and 5 Fire Warriors. The Black Templars consisted of a Chaplain on bike, an Emperor's Champion, 8 Assault Terminators, 5 Bladeguard Veterans, 5 Intercessors and I think that's about it, actually. No Dreadnoughts, at least I don't think there were any.

They started first and began slowly wearing down my Knight Castellan with the Riptide's shots. But then, as the game went on and they realized they couldn't kill him, they switched to shooting the Armigers instead - by the end of the game, I lost one Armiger Moirax while the other had like 4 wounds. On the other hand, my Armiger Moirax killed the Coldstar Commander...by overwatch, rolling 3 6s (well, 2 6s, and a 3rd 6 with the Glorified History re-roll). The Coldstar Commander failed his saves and took 9 damage. Farsight suffered a similar fate, failing his invulnerable saves against the same Armiger Moirax and taking 9 damage as well. The Death Guard finished off the Fire Warriors I failed to kill, and it took my Knight Castellan 5 turns to destroy both the Riptide and the Forge World battlesuit whose exotic name I can't remember and can't spell. On the other hand, the Death Guard did well in wiping out almost all the Black Templars, slaying the Bladeguard Veterans with Poxwalkers (sheer weight of numbers), Primaris Chaplain on bike (Chaos Spawn and Biologus Putrifier, I think), and the Emperor's Champion, but I got rid of the Intercessors. Other than that, the Assault Terminators survived, giving them 5 points for To The Last.

It was quite a back and forth game, but because of a few rolls here and there, the Farsight Enclaves weren't able to do enough damage and my Knights were able to grab objectives and wipe them out while leaving the Black Templars to the Death Guard. Eventually we won the game 91-53.

The final game was Scorched Earth, and we were up against Sanctuary 101, which consisted of Adepta Sororitas and Necrons. I can't remember what they had, but it was a very back and forth game that saw my poor Knight Castellan murdered by the Retributors. He blew up on double 6s and killed an entire squad of Battle Sisters by dealing 6 mortal wounds to them (as well as killing the Retributor who killed him). My Armiger Moirax Knights survived and were able to grab objectives, earning us some points for Stranglehold. The Death Guard was almost wiped out, with the Sacrascents wiping out a unit of Poxwalkers, the Dominions killing the Chaos Spawn (I think?) and Morven Vahl and the Sacrascents killing the Blightlord Terminators and Lord of Contagion. Fortunately, the Blightlord Terminators killed the Zerriphym, I think, while I took out a Lokhust Destroyer, a bunch of Scarabs (which were then finished off by Poxwalkers), Wraiths, a Chronomancer and a bunch of other stuff.

There was a point in time when one Armiger Moirax Knight rolled 5 hits on the Sacrascents - and despite needing only 2+s to wound, I ended rolling 5 1s. Yeah. 5 1s. What on Holy Terra. In any event, I killed the Chronomancer's two chrono necron guards that looked like Flayed Ones but were not Flayed Ones and had my Armiger claim a 4th objective to get 15 for primary and that precious 3 points for Stranglehold on the very last turn. Phew.

Funnily enough, the Knights and Death Guard literally held one half of the table (with my Armiger Moirax Knight being the only unit in the other half) while Morven Vahl, Sacrascents and 20 Warriors (or less, given how they lost a few over the game) and the Necron Overlord held the other half. The Warriors actually teleported across to the other end of the table to deal with the Poxwalkers that my teammate resurrected and walked from one edge of the table. That was hilarious, but totally worth it. In any event, we managed to squeak out a win, just barely. Phew. The score was 82 to 75. Wow. I so did not expect that. That was so close!

In the end, my team got 2nd place in the team tournament and were unbeaten (we didn't win any prizes, though), but 1st place went to Orks, team SkillRig utterly dominating the competition. Hey, that's totally fine. Both my teammate and I were immensely relieved that we weren't matched up against Orks. That would have been brutal. As much as I like my Knights, I suspect they would have gotten shot off the table by the damned Orks and their buggies. Ugh. That was...scary. Yeah, Team Skillrig with Orks won with 283 points while T and T took 2nd place with 256 points despite also winning all 3 of our games. To be fair, we only won all 3 games because we avoided being matched against Orks, so no complaints. I would rather have 2nd place than try to fight for 1st place with the Orks, heh. We got really, really lucky. Phew.

Oh, and the Knight Joust. It was fun. I fielded my Cerastus Knight Lancer, traded blows with a Cerastus Knight Atrapos, and then got blown up by mortal wounds and died. Honestly, I don't know what was happening, but everyone was having fun and I was enjoying myself, so that's all that matters. Unfortunately, partly because I am pretty exhausted and half asleep by then, I had no idea what was going on and so I don't know what to write...other than, yeah, dueling with a Knight Atrapos and dealing 8 wounds to it while taking 18 wounds in return. Ouch.

I did take a lot of pictures of the amazing Knights here and there. Probably missed a few as the players came slightly late (not their fault - we were all told the event starts at 8pm, but for some reason everyone began at 7pm...I was still eating dinner when that happened, whoops). But this is pretty much it.

That's all for an eventful first day for Renegade 2021! I'll be heading to bed early after such an exhausting day, and because I need to get up fairly early tomorrow to make it in time for check in. I don't know how I'll fare for the GT tomorrow, but I suspect I've used up all my luck for the Team Tournament today. That's perfectly fine. I'm not expecting anything - just gonna go roll some dice and have some fun before getting my ass kicked. Heh. For the Emperor.

Black Templars versus Salamanders

As part of preparing for the Renegade Open Major this weekend, I managed to get another game in! I was supposed to play against James Kelling (you guys might know him from Goonhammer), but he had to prepare stuff for traveling to his own Warhammer 40,000 tournament in Austin, Texas, so he couldn't make it today. Fortunately, I was able to schedule a game with another opponent, who brought Salamanders! This will be interesting. I've played against Death Guard twice, Adepta Sororitas, Chaos Daemons, Thousand Sons and Drukhari, but I don't think my Black Templars have ever faced Salamanders before. My Knights have, and it usually ends with me being tabled because...you know. Salamanders and melta. 'nuff said.

In any event, I was intrigued by how this would turn out (and also pretty happy that I would get a game, after all), so let's get on to it. My opponent's list looked something like this:

Salamanders Battalion Detachment

Captain on a bike

Techmarine, Master of the Forge (and a bunch of Warlord Traits and Relic, I think?)

3 Redemptor Dreadnoughts

2 Relic Contemptor Dreadnoughts with twin volkite culverins

2 squads of 5 Assault Intercessors

5 Intercessors

1 Landspeeder with multimelta

2 Landspeeders with multimelta

6 Eradicators

2 squads of 3 Eliminators

Yeah, I think that was about it. I brought my usual Black Templars list along - the same one I brought agaist Adepta Sororitas, Death Guard (the second game, anyway) and Drukhari, so I don't think I need to list them. I think.

Anyway, we rolled off and got Ascension. My opponent got first turn, and yeah. I think I lost 7 Primaris Crusaders to the dual volkites of the Contemptor Dreadnoughts, an entire squad of Bladeguard Veterans and a single Redemptor Dreadnought to the combined multimeltas, melta rifles and plasma cannons of the 2 Land Speeders, 3 Eradicators and two other Redemptor Dreadnoughts. It was pretty brutal shooting, that's for sure. I then had my Assault Intercessors charged up the field, but only one made their charge. At least my Contemptor Dreadnought - who survived the multimelta from a Landspeeder and 3 melta rifle shots from the Eradicators - made his charge and destroyed the lone Landspeeder. My shooting was abysmal, to say the least. I didn't hit much with the Contemptor Dreadnoughts' multimeltas, and when I did score a hit, I rolled a 1 or a 2 against the Landspeeders, which failed to wound them. It was bad. The Assault Intercessors who made their charge killed 2 Assault Intercessors, and then lost 2 in the counterattack. Oh, well.

My opponent continued to take out my units, wiping out the Primaris Crusaders, killing the Primaris Marshal through volume of shots from the Redemptor Dreadnoughts, destroyed my wounded Contemptor Dreadnought and then annihilated all of my Assault Intercessors and Bladeguard Veterans with the Redemptor Dreadnoughts. I don't know what to say. The only bright spot was my Emperor's Champion surviving two rounds of snipes from the Eliminators, but other than that...yeah. This was bad for me.

My Terminators deep struck and tried to charge the Redemptor Dreadnought...only to fail their charge. Only the Marshal in Terminator armor made it, did maybe like 1 wound to the Redemptor Dreadnought and then died to the fists. The surviving two Dreadnoughts did f all with their shooting again, and my Emperor's Champion charged into like 3 Assault Intercessors, only to roll a bunch of 1s and 2s, and maybe a couple of 3s for the wound rolls. Of course, my opponent had used transhuman physiology to ensure that I only wounded on 4+s, so...he basically did absolutely nothing. At least he survived the combat, but he took 2 wounds despite having a 2+ save. Really?

That pretty much summed up a one-sided game. Oh, well. I think I screwed up somewhere. I should have placed my Bladeguard Veterans properly in cover to ensure they wouldn't get shot at, but it is what it is, I guess. Also, I should have taken Uphold the Emperor to give my Redemptor Dreadnoughts a 5++ invulnerable save instead. Maybe that would have helped? I don't know. I had taken Accept the Challenge, no matter the odds, so that the AP -1 Astartes chainswords would have some effect against the Salamanders' wounds, but alas, it was not to be. Anyway, it was an overwhelming victory for the Salamanders, and a lesson learned for me. I'll figure it out, I hope! I'm sure I'll find some way to deal with Salamanders or other Space Marines during Renegade. But we'll see.

Until then!

Cute little Knights incoming!

Woke up late and was treated to this amazing news about Adeptus Titanicus when I visited Warhammer Community for my daily dose of Warhammer 40,000 news.

Hell, yeah! We are getting Armigr class Knights for Adeptus Titanicus! Yay! The Warglaives are exactly what I need to supplement my Knight Household Army! The only ones left are Dominus class Knights, but I don't know about them. In any event, these Armigers aren't the only incoming forces!

We are getting the Armiger Moirax class Knights too! Hell, yeah! They all move at 11", apparently - faster than Questoris but slower than Cerastus Knights. They also have quite the interesting weapons.

I'm not sure how they'll do against Titans, but Strength 8 Fusion in melee isn't something to scoff at. The moment they get in close and underneath shields...yeah. The Lightning Lock also seems pretty cool, though Strength 5 only scratches the Titan's paint even with Rending. Especially when you only have 1 dice...

Anyway, this is how they are sized!

Heh, really cool, huh? I suspect they will be using the same bases as Dreadnoughts if they ever expand Adeptus Titanicus to include Astarte tanks and walkers. I don't know what the future holds, but I'm definitely looking forward to it!

Defending Hive Gaia

Things have come to a head in Gydisk Sigma. After the Imperium successfully stopped the Tyranids and Chaos invaders from routing Hive Gaia (Wrack and Ruin) last week, they launched a counterattack against the invaders to take page a staging post. Yes, the third stage of the first phase of the Octarius Campaign saw us undertake the Incursion mission Staging Post, where the defenders have to seize a staging post or facility back from the invaders.

This time, the T'au Empire have sent a small force to ally with the Imperium, having recognized the threat the Tyranids and Chaos warbands are posing not just to humanity but also the whole galaxy. After the Imperial Guard regiments' valiant attempts to repel an assault from the World Eaters, but their failure to hold against the hive against the ravenous Tyranids, the Thousand Sons thrallband who named themselves the Masters of Darkness had begun to execute the next stage of their scheme. Devout worshippers of Tzeentch, the Masters of Darkness revel in crisis, using the despair of the Imperial citizens besieged by the Tyranids as fuel for one of their sorcerous rituals that would see them tear a hole in real space for hordes of Daemons to assail the Imperium. They must enact this plan before the gathering hive fleets of the Tyranids drown out the Empyrean with the Shadow of the Warp.

Meanwhile, a small detachment of T'au have offered assistance to the Imperium. Desperate for aid, the beleaguered planetary governor agreed, and the T'au took their positions alongside the decimated Imperial Guard. Their first mission was to assault a facility that was being held by a Traitor Guard regiment who was allied with the routed World Eaters. Bringing a Riptide and Stealth Suits, the T'au was able to sabotage vital equipment and steal the staging post from the blood-frenzied Guardsmen, heavily damaging their tanks and all but wiping out their infantry. However, the cost was high as entire Fire Warrior teams were wiped out, and only a single Stealth Suit emerged as the sole survivor of the daring raid behind enemy lines. The Riptide was forced to pull back after exchanging fire with two Leman Russ tanks, but that was pretty much what the T'au had left after their audacious assault.

The Black Templars discovered the staging post where the Thousand Sons - the Masters of Darkness - were conducting their foul ritual, and with righteous fury they fell upon the Traitors. Many knights in black fell to writhing hordes of mutating Chaos Spawn or blasphemous sorcery, but eventually the ravaged remains of two Bladeguard Veteran squads survived to disrupt the ritual. Funnily enough, two squads of Assault Intercessors also lived through the carnage, hanging back to defend Imperial lines from teleporting Rubric Marines. The Emperor's Champion felled the Daemon Prince Aku before he was laid low by retaliating Rubric Marines and sorcery, but he was hauled back by the survivors, brought back to the Apothecarion for treatment. Despite his injuries, the Crusade was successful in halting the ruinous ritual and driving the heretics away from Hive Gaia. Aku would reform elsewhere, swearing vengeance on the zealots.

Unfortunately, tragedy fell upon the Cadians when their tanks and infantry squads - so stalwart in holding the line against World Eaters earlier - were completely wiped out by the unstoppable ferocity of Hive Fleet Leviathan. Their tanks were ripped apart by a Hive Tyrant, despite valiantly destroying a Carnifex and even a Maleceptor, and their infantry were torn to shreds. The proud Karskin were completely slain as they formed a desperate rearguard to allow what remained of the ragged regiment to retreat, a massive blow to the already dwindling Cadians - especially after losing their home world in the Thirteenth Black Crusade.

Previous to this (Thursday night, actually), the Black Templars also repelled an invasion force from the Death Guard. A massive company of Death Guard had landed on Gydisk Sigma to conquer Hive Gaia, having been lured to the city by the scheming Masters of Darkness. Despite sowing sickness in the Imperial lines, they were annihilated by the furious Black Templars, their diseased sorcery having little effect on the faithful zealots, and only the Lord of Contagion and a single Plagueburst Crawler was able to escape. The Death Guard would probably return in future, though the Lord of Contagion was so wounded that he would require a long time to recover.

At the end of stage 2 of phase 2, the Attackers had 13 warzone points to the Defenders' 7. However, despite Hive Fleet Leviathan continuing to devour its way through Imperial Guardsmen, the defeats suffered by the Chaos invaders saw the Imperium and their allies (the T'au) draw even somehow, amassing 14 points in this phase alone, while the Tyranids propped up the bulk of the Attackers' victories, scoring 7 warzone points. By the end of phase 1, the total score was Attackers: 20 Defenders: 21. Unexpectedly, the Defenders won by a single point. I don't think anyone could have predicted that, given how rampant the Tyranids were. But wow...that was cool.

Anyway, thanks to Imperial victory in Hive Gaia, we were able to win the first phase. That means nothing because there are two more phases to go, and the Tyranids are only going to continue growing stronger and stronger from hereonout...uh oh. We're all going to be eaten by giant space bugs, aren't we?

Well, we'll find out in the next couple of months! Phase 1 is over, and phase 2 is next. That means Strike Force games! 100 power level! Looking forward to it!