Thousand Sons versus Baneblade!

Today I managed to get a game with one of the kids I'm friends with, and he brought a Baneblade. Having just built my Thousand Sons army, I couldn't wait to try it out...and I completely forgot to bring my Contemptor Dreadnought. Damn. I also haven't squeezed the Alpha Legion allied detachment with Havocs inside, so without anti-tank I was pretty much fighting an uphill battle against the Baneblade list.

My opponent brought an Ultramarine Battalion Detachment with 2 Intercessor squads (or 3?), an Inceptor squad, a tactical squad, a Hellblaster squad, an Ironclad Dreadnought, Sergeant Chronos in a Rhino (the Warlord), a Space Marine Captain who he upgraded into a Chapter Master with the Stratagem, a Librarian and a Terminator squad. He then allied the Ultramarines with a single Baneblade (because Baneblades are awesome, and screw the fluff). Uh, I think that was about it. One of the Intercessors were in the Rhino along with Sergeant Rhinos.

On the other hand, I brought my newly built Thousand Sons army. Daemon Prince of Tzentch, Ahzek Ahriman (the Warlord), an Exalted Sorcerer on disc, an Exalted Sorcerer on foot, 2 squads of normal Rubric Marines, a squad of Rubric Marines with flamers in a Chaos Rhino, Scarab Occult Terminators and 3 squads of Cultists, and a Hellforged Deredeo Dreadnought. Since I forgot to bring my Contemptor Dreadnought, I had 147 points left. I decided to proxy my Kastelan Robot as a Daemon Prince without wings by removing a flamer from one of my Cultist squads and voila! Daemon Prince of Tzeentch from the Chaos Codex that...well, I summoned through Daemonic Ritual and summoning. Now that I think about it, I should have just put him in my Battalions instead of summoning him. Stupid of me. In other words, I brought 2 Battalions for a whooping 13 points. Not that it helped me much because my opponent went first, and I was basically destroyed and crushed by the power of the Baneblade.

First turn, I lost my Deredeo Dreadnought and 7 Cultists but somehow didn't lose anyone else. My opponent scored First Blood. I retaliated by killing his Ironclad Dreadnought through lots of shooting and combat with my Daemon Prince, Smited the Inceptors to death, killed a bunch of Hellblasters but didn't managed to kill all of them, and...that's about it. Oh, well. The Daemon Prince and Ahriman consolidated into the Rhino with Sergeant Chronos

The Intercessors disembarked and the Rhino fell back. The Baneblade fired and killed Ahirman right away despite his 3++ invulnerable saves. I failed most of my invulnerable saves, and I rolled really, really badly this game. The Daemon Prince with wings also went down to a combination of shooting and combat when the Librarian slapped him into oblivion with his force stave. He also Deep Struck his Terminators in my backfield and shot at my dual sword Exalted Sorcerer on disc, but failed to kill him. My opponent now had 5 Victory points to my 2, thanks to slaying the Warlord and First Blood. I did my best with my psychic mastery and killed the Intercessors and Librarian that had slain my Daemon Prince with Smite and other stuff, then finished off the Hellblasters with my Rubric Marines. The warpflamer Rubric Marine squad disembarked from the Chaos Rhino that was locked in combat with the Librarian and Intercessors, but had nothing to shoot at since they all died during the psyhic phase, and did a few wounds to the Chronos Rhino. My Scarab Occult Terminators shot down 3 or so Intercessors in the backfield after Deep Striking, and did 2 missile shots into the Baneblade, dealing a whooping 6 damage in total. However, my Exalted Sorcerer got cocky and charged into combat, only to fluff his wound rolls or the Chapter Master made all his Iron Halo saves, and...yeah. The Exalted Sorcerer died after the Chapter Master struck back and killed him. Damn. So my opponent had 6 victory points while I had 5. Still trailing behind.

The Baneblade did a number on my Scarab Occult Terminators, taking out one of them for some reason. The Terminators advanced and took out quite a few warpflamer Rubric Marines, along with the Baneblade's many heavy bolter shots. Despite have 2+ saves from All is Dust, I kept failing tons of saves and losing 6 Rubric Marines. Bloody hell, Tzeentch has something against me, I know it. Funnily enough, when the Chapter Master charged my warpflamer Rubric Marines, they killed him with overwatch. 4D6 warpflamer auto-hits with AP-2 is really awesome. On the other side, the Terminators destroyed my Chaos Rhino in combat and consolidated into my poor warpflamer Rubric Marines. That gave him 7 victory points to my 6, and my warpflamer Rubric Marines passed their morale. I think my Daemon Prince was wounded, left with 1 wound, but no matter how many times I used Temporal Manipulation to heal him, I either Perils or failed - for 2 or 3 turns in a freaking row. This was getting ridiculous.

Anyway, I killed the Terminators in my backyard through lots of Smite, killed another 2 Intercessors with my surviving Scarab Occult Terminators as they slowly advanced forward. The Daemon Prince and warpflamer Rubric Marines charged at the Rhino with Sergeant Chronos, and I absolutely fluffed my attacks. I rolled 5 ones despite hitting 7 times. I don't understand. Tzeentch definitely has something against me, I know it. Well, I had 7 victory points and caught up with him or something.

However, his Baneblade killed 2 more Scarab Occult Terminators and wounded one of the remaining one. I think that was about it. My Daemon Prince then charged and finally destroyed the damned Rhino, while my 2 remaining Scarab Occult Terminators smited the last Intercessor in that squad out of existence and killed maybe 1 Intercessor in another squad. That gave me 9 victory points, but Sergeant Chronos survived and disembarked the destroyed Rhino. The next thing I know, in turn 5, my opponent killed my Daemon Prince and wiped out both the warpflamer Rubric Marines and Scarab Occult Terminators to give him 11 victory points. It was my loss...except that I stubbornly dug in and moved my 2 surviving Rubric Marine squads forward with the Exalted Sorcerer on foot. I managed to kill Sergeant Chronos, netting me Slay the Warlord and giving me 11 points, but I failed to kill either the Intercessor or the tactical squad. It was a draw, but we rolled and continued on to turn 6.

His Baneblade fired and killed the 3 Cultists that survived the turn 1 bombardment, and he pulled ahead on 12 victory points to my 11. I tried to charge up but despite killing most of the Intercessors and tactical marines, each squad stubbornly had 1 Sergeant remaining, and I failed to earn the 2 victory points I needed to win the game. Needless to say, they passed their morale. I rolled, and the game did not go on to turn 7. Wouldn't have worked for me since the Baneblade would have wiped out my Rubric Marines and earned him more victory points anyway.

Wait...what? I just remembered I had Linebreaker since my units were all in his deployment zone. So it actually means it was a draw! I can't wait to see the expression on the kid's face when I tell him that on Monday...that we forgot Linebreaker and it was a draw. Nah, I might just keep quiet about this and let him enjoy his victory. It's just a game, we both had a lot of fun, and despite facing a Baneblade I managed to survive and draw with him or gave him a run for his money (11-12, if excluding Linebreaker) even though I had no anti-tank weapons whatsoever!

Well, we'll see. As always, I would appreciate advice on how to improve my game (I doubt I'll get it, and even if I do, most likely I'll get cynical remarks telling me not to field Rubric Marines and Scarab Occult Terminators but buy and field lots of Tzaangors instead). The terrible roll costed me a lot, but I guess it's not meant to be. At least the both of us had a blast, especially the kid! :D That's the most important thing!