All Gravis Army

I actually had a plan for a couple of games today, first against my friend who wanted to practice an all Gravis army for Waaaghfest next year. The second was suppoed to be Crusade...but unfortunately, the usual Crusade gang went MIA. I was already aware that a couple of them would be out of town because of the holidays, but yeah...I didn't expect almost nobody to show up. Only Adrian did, and since we were on the same side, we couldn't really do much. Also, I don't think it was a good idea to play my Black Templars against his Imperial Guard...

Anyway, I ended up playing the practice game for the Waaaghfest before the Crusade that ended up not happening. I guess we'll be doing Phase 3 on New Year's Day instead. Hmm. We'll see. Hopefully it'll be fun because it's the last 100 power level/Strike Force game before we move on to 150/Onslaught. As for the other game, it turned out pretty...unexpected.

So my friend brought a list that was all Gravis. It sounds pretty good on paper because you have an army that's all Toughness 5. He chose to play them as White Scars, curiously enough. I think his plan was to run them up the table with their assault weapons and shoot without penalty (so melta rifles, hellstorm bolt rifles, assault bolters, autobolt gauntlets, etc.). Then extra damage in combat later, especially with the Aggressors. So his list looked like this:

White Scars Battalion

Chapter Master in gravis armor, with autobolt gauntlets (I think?) and a Warlord Trait that gives him +1 wound against vehicles and monsters

Primaris Captain with master-crafted heavy bolt rifle (the one in gravis armor)

2 squads of 5 Heavy Intercessors

10 Heavy Intercessors

2 squads of 3 Aggressors

4 Aggressors

3 squads of 3 Inceptors

2 squads of 3 Eradicators

I think that's about it? Yeah, he mentioned that he would have 47 Toughness 5 gravis models with 3 wounds each running around the table, so that sounds about right.

I brought my usual Crusade list - you should be familiar with it by now, it's the same list that I used against Drukhari on Wednesday. Primaris Marshal, Emperor's Champion, Primaris Chaplain, 3 squads of Assault Intercessors, 5 Bladeguard Veterans, 4 Sword Brethren, 2 Redemptor Dreadnoughts, and 2 Repulsor Executioner tanks. We used the Open Play cards or something, the ones with the Twist and stuff like that, so as to simulate the crazy Waaaaghfest games. Fortunately, there were 6 objectives that we placed to mostly mirror each other. Then I got first turn.

I'm not sure how to say this, but perhaps it's the type of terrain that we had, but my opponent was unable to hide all 47 of his Gravis models, even with like 6 Inceptors in Deep Strike (so 41). He sort of castled up his gravis dudes in the middle of his deployment zone, so I had a good amount of shooting. My Repulsor Executioner fired and basically killed 3 Eradicators and 2-3 Heavy Intercessors. The Redemptor Dreadnought then fired and killed 2 Eradicators with his macro plasma incinerator. The other Redemptor Dreadnought then fired and only had 1 shot for his macro plasma incinerator, which meant he failed to kill the last Eradicator, but I think he did some damage to the Aggressors. The second Repulsor Executioner, on the other hand, killed the last Eradicator with the twin heavy bolters, and then blitzed the two squads of Aggressors, killing all 7 (probably 1 was killed by the Redemptor Dreadnought). With the exception of the second Redemptor, I was rolling 5s and 6s for the macro plasma incinerators for the two Repulsor Executioner tanks and Redemptor Dreadnought, which allowed me to basically wipe out the Eradicators and Aggressors. Wow, just wow. I'm not sure what else to say other than...yeah, wow. Oh, the pintle-mounted multimeltas on the Repulsor Executioner tanks helped a lot as well.

In the first turn, I essentially wiped out almost half of his army (more like 1/3), taking out all of his Eradicators and 2/3 of his Aggressors. With just 4 models from my army - nothing else shot, nobody charged, nothing. That was unbelievable.

My opponent then conceded because he had no way of taking out my tanks. We kind of tried to simulate what would happen - his remaining Aggressors still wouldn't be able to get within charge range of the Repulsor Executioner, my guys would just disembark and charge, while I continued to wipe out the remaining Heavy Intercessors and Aggressors with my two Repulsor Executioner tanks and Redemptor Dreadnoughts' 3 Damage plasma weapons. He had no other forces to contest the other objectives, and I probably would just win on objectives anyway. That was just...brutal.

Okay, that was an unexpected victory, but it turned out that my list countered his list hard. Like really hard. The answer to an all Gravis list was to bring about 4 macro plasma incinerators that did 3 damage each. Furthermore, with their AP -4 (going to AP -5 in the first turn because of Devastator Doctrine), that meant that his poor Heavy Intercessors and Gravis guys wouldn't get any saves. So...yikes. And each shot that went through killed a model. In the first turn alone, I basically killed 16 models, basically 1/3 of his army. And he had no anti-tank left, so...yeah. It would be near impossible for him to destroy my Repulsor Executioner tanks, not with Strength 5 D 1 weapons. The only units that would have a shot would be the plasma Inceptors, but they'll deep strike, maybe do some damage (and hopefully not blow themselves up with supercharged plasma), and then get shot off the table or charged.

Not...exactly a good scenario. Oh, well. I guess we'll be trying out another game after the holidays! This time I'll switch my Repulsor Executioner tanks out for Terminators instead!

Black Templars versus Drukhari

I managed to get a game against Drukhari or Dark Eldar today! My opponent brought Cult of Strife and Kabal of the Black Heart, and I believe this is the first time I'm playing against Drukhari after their nerf in the dataslate. And I think it shows, but we'll get to that later. For now, my opponent list looks something like this:

Cult of Strife Battalion

Lelith Hesperax

Succubus

3 squads of 5 Wyches

2 squads of 10 Wyches (or rather 1 squad of 9, 1 squad of 10)

Beastmaster

Kabal of Black Heart Patrol

Archon

2 squads of 10 Kabalite Warriors

1 squad of 5 Kabalite Warriors

2 squads of 5 Incubi

1 Ravager

2 Venoms

12 Reavers

2 Raiders

Something like that. I brought my Crusade list, which was the same all-Primaris list that I use for my Crusade campaign, with some exceptions.

Black Templars Battalion

Primaris Marshal with auto-flamer

Primaris Chaplain

Emperor's Champion

3 squads of 5 Assault Intercessors

5 Bladeguard Veterans

2 Redemptor Dreadnoughts

4 Sword Brethren

2 Repulsor Executioner tanks

Funnily enough, the Repulsor Executioner tanks pulled their weight today. I guess the Uphold the Emperor Vow really makes a lot of difference. Anyway, let's get onto it. Our misson was Scorched Earth because it had the easiest deployment zones and I was kind of lazy, heh. We rolled off, I ended up deploying first, and then I got first turn somehow.

That...basically turned everything around. In the first turn, with combined shooting from my 2 Redemptor Dreadnoughts and 1 of my Repulsor Executioner, I killed 2 squads of 5 Wyches and 10 Kabalite Warriors, making the whole quarter empty. I completely forgot to shoot with my second Repulsor Executioner, but whatever. Let's take it as a handicap against a relatively new-ish player who hasn't played for a long time.

Despite the Kabal of Black Heart re-rolls and Dark Lances, my 5++ invulnerable save from the Templar Vow saw my Repulsor Executioner survive everything, going down to 7 wounds (I think? - probably 10 after the shooting phase). The Reavers charged in, I killed 2 in overwatch, and then they did 3 damage in melee to bring my Repulsor Executioner down to 7 wounds total.

I managed to get 15 points for primary because I held 3 objectives to my opponent's 2. Plus banners and Oaths of Moment gave me a lot of points. I then killed most of the Reavers in the shooting phase wth my Repulsor Executioner, destroyed the Ravager and did 4 and 3 wounds respectively to the 2 Raiders with my Redemptor Dreadnoughts and second Repulsor Executioner. The 3rd squad of Assault Intercessors planted a banner in the objective close to the center. The last 5-woman squad of Wyches were wiped out by the Repulsor Executioner as well. The Primaris Chaplain disembarked, charged in and killed another couple of Reavers. They did some damage to the Repulsor Executioner before failing morale and fleeing. Nice.

My opponent had 5 for primary, and then he had all his Wyches and Incubi charge into my Repulsor Executioner and Redemptor Dreadnought, and despite all the hits and wound rolls, he brought my Repulsor Executioner down to 4 wounds and my Redemptor Dreadnought down to 7. Heh. The Succubus and Lelith charged into my Primaris Chaplain and the Succubus killed him. My Redemptor Dreadnought killed 2 Incubi in counteroffensive before taking those 5 wounds, but...yeah. My melee sucked when compared to the Drukhari.

My Sword Brethren disembarked, as did my Bladeguard Veterans, who then planted a banner on an objective on my opponent's side of the table. The Redemptor Dreadnought brought 1 Raider down to 1 or 2 wounds while my Repulsor Executioner destroyed the other Raider while doing 3 wounds to the Venom with the multimelta. He also wiped out the 8 Kabalite Warriors with his other weapons (2 had died earlier when they got out of the destroyed Ravager). Meanwhile the wounded Repulsor Executioner destroyed a Venom and killed 7 Wyches when shooting into them. The Redemptor Dreadnought killed another 2 Incubi with shooting, but failed to finish off the last one in melee. Like I said, Black Templars aren't as good in melee as Drukhari, but my shooting was amazing. My Black Templars were literally shooting the Drukhari off the table. The Sword Brethren fired the pyrepistols, plasma pistol and heavy bolt pistol at Lelith, but took like 3 wounds off her despite the sheer volume of her shots, the Character making her 4++ invulnerable saves. Unfortunately for her, the 5 Assault Intercessors killed her with 4 shots from their heavy bolt pistols, with her failing 2 saves. I didn't even need to fire the Sergeant's plasma pistol, heh. That got me 5 points for Bathe your blade in the blood of your foe because I didn't kill her in melee, and didn't kill her with the Emperor's Champion, but that was fine.

The Marshal killed the Beastmaster with his auto-flamer. My Sword Brethren then charged in and killed the Succubus in combat. My Marshal and Redemptor Dreadnought charged in to kill like 1 Incubi (uh, that was bad rolling on my part). The Incubi fought back and killed my Primaris Marshal. Wow, what a fail on his part. Ouch. The Wyches attacked again, only for my damaged Repulsor Executioner to tank everything like a boss. By the end of the fight phase, he had like 2 wounds left. Heh. That was hilarious. My opponent literally threw everything he had at the Toughness 8 grav-tank, and he survived. I don't know what to say. I think the Wyches failed morale and 1 ran away, so there was one left. I'll take that. The full squad of Wyches, on the other hand, attacked my Redemptor Dreadought and brought him down to 4 wounds. Ouch.

My opponent had 10 points for primary while I had 15 again (and I had 3 for Banners, bringing me to 5, and 7 for Oaths of Moment, going up to 11). He decided to call it. He probably would have killed my wounded Redemptor Dreadnought and Repulsor Executioner who had 2 wounds left, to be honest. Let's be serious, there's no way my Repulsor Executioner can survive another round of combat with just 2 wounds left. I lost 2 Characters and would probably lose 2 vehicles, but I still had another Redemptor Dreadnought and Repulsor Executioner, both at full health. On the other hand, he had a wounded Venom with 3 wounds left, a Raider with 1 wound, 1 Wych, 10 Wyches, and about 5 Incubi total, not counting the 5 Kabalite Warriors hiding in the building to get him an objective. Even if he somehow killed my vehicles, I would simply wipe out the Wyches and Incubi with the sheer number of shots I had from my Repulsor Executioner. And they would find it extremely hard to grind down my second Redemptor Dreadnought while I slowly cut them down with his weapons in shooting (stormbolters and a heavy flamer). So yeah. I was ahead on primary and secondary objecctives, while he had like 6, going to 8 for Herd the Prey, 2 for Retrieve Octarius Data (and he had nothing else to retrieve the data with because his 5 Kabalite Warriors already did it in their corner, and if they step out, they would get wiped by the Repulsor Executioner), and...0 for No Prisoners. He killed 2 Characters and probably 2 Vehicles (though that remains to be seen), but no infantry.

In contrast, I already had 30 for primary to his 15, 21 to his 10. He had not very many models left on the table while I had enough units to pull ahead in primary for the next two turns while shooting his ever decreasing infantry with my remaining tank and Dreadnought. It would be a tough fight for him, and so he conceded.

A victory for the Black Templars again! Too bad this didn't happen in the RTT, but I guess it's fine. We had fun, and that's the most important thing! However, for now I have to hunker down because there's a tornado warning in the Twin Cities. Praying to the God-Emperor that I don't get hit by a tornado and get blown away, but...you'll never know. I hope I didn't use up all my luck for this game, only to get killed by a storm. Oh, well...it is what it is, I guess. Stay safe, everyone in Minnesota! Watch out for strong winds and the tornado (hopefully there won't be one)!

Stranglehold on Gideon Fields

The second stage of phase 2 of the Gydisk Sigma campaign continued today, with the Tyranids sweeping over the defenders to devour all biomass. The Imperial Guard made their last stand, the 388th Argent Regiment marshaling their tanks to withstand the onslaught of living chitin, claws and fangs. Meanwhile the Black Templars sought to halt the advance of Khornate forces, the World Eaters, their Daemon allies and mortal servants in the form of the Blood Pact and other Traitor Guard regiments attempting to spearhead an invasion into the Gideon Fields.

The Black Templars under the Gydisk Crusade launched an assault on the super-heavy tanks of the Blood Pact, attempting to take them out before they could link up with the World Eaters and provide much-needed firepower for the Blood God's war. Suffering heavy casualties in the process, losing two Contemptor Dreadnoughts and a few Neophytes as well as veteran Terminators, the Black Templars got in close and attempted to smash a Baneblade, a Shadowsword and a Stormlord to pieces. They succeeded in wrecking the tanks, but with their forces diminished, they made their last stand against an approaching warband of World Eaters and accompanying Khorne Daemons.

Meanwhile, the 388th Argent Regiment was massacred by the swarms of Hive Fleet Leviathan. The flesh-boring devourers of Termagaunts, the scythes of the Carnifex and claws of the leading Hive Tyrant reduced their tanks into smoldering wreckages. Within the first few minutes, hundreds of brave Guardsmen were slaughtered, laid low by the flesh-eating parasites from bioweapons. The Tyranids poured through the field, ravenously devouring everything within their way. The remaining tanks were forced into a retreat, but it was too late to save their Baneblade, which was torn apart by the swarm.

The Black Templars suffered further losses as they attempted to stem the tide of warp-born monstrosities. Three Helbrutes lumbered forward, destroying a Redemptor Dreadnought and damaging a Repulsor Executioner tank, only for Skulltaker to lunge forward and slowly dismantle the latter. An entire Primaris Crusader squad was wiped out, blown apart by Obliterators, who then charged in and destroyed them. Fortunately, their sacrifice was not in vain, for they succeeded in banishing a Daemon Prince back to the warp. With their remaining armored assets, the Black Templars destroyed the Helbrutes and Chaos Predator, as well as annihilated squads of Khorne Berzerkers, a horde of Bloodletters and veteran Terminators. Even the Bloodcrushers couldn't withstand the heavy plasma onslaught from the Repulsor Executioner tanks.

Despite the horrendous losses, the Imperium survived to fight another day. Though they had to cede half of the Gideon Fields to the unstoppable swarm of the Tyranids, they scored a major victory against the forces of Chaos. Perhaps next week the Imperium will marshal resources from a neighboring forge world to blunt the advance of the Tyranids, while the Black Templars and beleaguered Imperial Guard scour the world clean of traitor armies.

Today's score: Defenders 11 Attackers 7

December Munera

I participated in a RTT today, at Next Level Wargaming. Unfortunately, this was the last RTT to be held there, and I feel really, really sad. I'll miss the place.

As for the games, well, I'm exhausted and I don't remember much. I've been up since 3am, so I'm kind of brain dead at this point. The only thing I can say for sure is that I played Black Templars, and I think I screwed up. My list was basically:

Black Templars Battalion

Primaris Marshal with auto-flamer and master-crafted power sword, Master at Arms

Primaris Chaplain with Breviary (however you spell it)

Emperor's Champion

3 Assault Intercessor squads (5 dudes each, one squad's Sergeant had a power fist, the Relic Bearer one called Fist of Balthus?)

5 Bladeguard Veterans

2 Redemptor Dreadnoughts with plasma

4 Sword Brethren

2 Primaris Repulsor Executioner tanks with plasma

First game was against Grey Knights with 5 Dreadknights. Despite using the Abhor the Witch Vow, my army got almost wiped out. I think I did have a single Repulsor Executioner still alive somewhere in my deployment zone, but I only killed 1 Dreadknight. Yikes. On the other hand, I killed like 4-5 Interceptor squads (I think?), so not too bad. Ended in a terrible loss for me.

Second game was against Black Templars - mirror match up! I think the opponent had 8 Assault Terminators, an Apocethary, Primaris Chaplain on bike, a Gladiator Valiant, but otherwise he had a similar list to mine. Lost that game too, 73 (I think?) to 97 points. Oh, well. Let's just say my Repulsor Executioners basically did f all, and he made all the saves for his Assault Terminators and Bladeguard Veterans. Not exactly a good game for me.

The third game was against Space Wolves. I got tabled by turn 5. End of story.

Um, as it turns out, the Repulsor Executioner tanks were bad. A lot worse than I thought. Perhaps half of it was my stupidity in not selecting the Uphold the Emperor's vow, which would give them a 5++ invulnerable saves against the Space Wolves and the Grey Knights, but yeah. I guess I'll have to figure something out. Swap them out for Terminators, maybe. Honestly, they are great in a Crusade or narratively themed army, but in tournaments...not so much. Anyway, I'll see. Till then. Gotta sleep early tonight because I'm exhausted, so I'm keeping this post short.