Battle Report 37

Hello, everybody! Today we have a battle report featuring the Steel Dragons against the Thousand Sons! Yeah, that's why I wrote the joke story last week, it was essentially what happened in the game. Heh. Take note, this game actually took place last Wednesday, just before the Iron Hands FAQ dropped. The only thing the FAQ affected, though, was my spamming of Optimal Repulsion Doctrines, but I had about 4 Command Points left over by the end of the game, so I would still have 2 left anyway.

All right, so what did my opponent and I have? My opponent upped his Thouand Sons list from 1,550 to 1,850 this time, bringing a Tzeenth Daemons Battalion, a Thousand Sons Battalion and a Vanguard Detachment.

Tzeenth Daemons Battalion
Changeling
Changecaster...or whatever it is they call the Herald of Tzeentch on foot these days
10 Pink Horrors
10 Brimstone Horrors
10 Brimstone Horrors
3 Flamers
3 Screamers

Thousand Sons Battalion
Ahzek Ahriman
Daemon Prince of Tzeentch (Warlord, with the +1 to his invulnerable save and Dark Matter Crystal)
10 Rubric Marines with soulreaper cannon, and maybe 1 warpflamer. Aspiring Sorcerer had warpflame pistol
20 Tzaangors
10 Cultists

Thousand Sons Vanguard
Sorcerer in Terminator Armor (Helm of the Third Eye)
Tzaangor Shaman
9 Tzaangor Enlightened
Helbrute with missile launcher and heavy plasma cannon
5 Scarab Occult Terminators

I think that was about it. I can't remember anything else, but I'm sure that's what he brought. As for me, my Steel Dragons were still far from complete, so I had to proxy a couple of stuff. I didn't have the Impulsors or a 2nd Repulsor Executioner yet, so I decided to ditch them. I mean, who cares? I play for fun, I don't need those. So I just gathered whatever I had and tried to fit them under 1,850 points. Turned out I needed to proxy something, though.

Steel Dragons Battalion
Primaris Captain (Warlord, has the 5+++ Feel No Pain and the auto-medicae relic that allows him to regain D3 wounds at the start of my turns) - I shall name him Captain Fushi
Primaris Librarian
2x5 Intercessors, Sergeant with Thunder Hammer - one of them is named Sergeant Tetsuhara
5 Intercessors, Sergeant with power sword
Repulsor Executioner with heavy laser destroyer

Steel Dragons Vanguard
Librarian with force axe
2 Invictor tactical warsuits with incendium cannon - as I only had one, I had to proxy the second using one of my Armiger Knights Moirax
2 Relic Contemptor Dreadnoughts with dual heavy plasma cannons and Cyclone missile launchers
2 Company Veterans, Sergeant with combi-plasma and chainsword, Veteran with plasma gun (okay, another proxy - I only had plasma cannon guys, so we pretended his plasma cannon was a plasma gun)
5 Devastators, Sergeant with combi-grav and chainsword, 4 heavy grav cannons with grav amp
Razorback with twin assault cannons and storm bolter



I hope I didn't miss anything out, but that's pretty much it. I just used Inheritors of the Primarch to get the Iron Hands Chapter Tactics because, quite honestly, I don't know what else to pick and I play heavy armor. So I thought the Scions of the Forge (vehicles counting as having double their wounds when consulting the damage chart) was the most appropriate. Can't think of any of the other Chapter Tactics being that useful for me, and since I use House Taranis's Grace of the Ommnisiah for my Imperial Knights most of the time, I decided to stick with that because I was familiar with it. I didn't know it applied to mortal wounds too! As you'll see, that makes quite a lot of difference.

We got the Four Pillars for our mission because none of us brought our datacards - my friend forgot (I think) while I didn't buy the Iron Hands datacards. Those cost a lot. Ugh. Anyway, we just went for Four Pillars and I deployed first. My friend then deployed and attempted to seize the Initiative, but rolled a 5. So close yet so far. Ouch.



Turn 1

Thanks to clever deployment, my opponent's forces were mostly out of range, with his Helbrute essentially sitting at the end of the table. He placed his Rubric Marines in deep strike because of the webway Stratagem, along with the Flamers. The Cultists were pretty much out of range, but the Horrors were all in front. Fortunately, I had deployed my Invictor tactical warsuits out of Concealed Positions and they walked right up to the Horrors and flamed them. Anyway, let's not get too ahead of myself. I had 2 squads of Intercessors advance to grab 2 of the pillars, while the 3rd squad of Intercessors sat on the 1st pillar. Yay? The Contemptor Dreadnoughts and Repulsor Executioner also moved up, but they were out of range of almost everything except the Horrors. My friend had deployed intelligently. The Librarian with force axe cast the Blessing of the Machine God and failed. Whoops. Oh well. Anyway, between the Invictor tactical warsuits, the Devastators with grav - who had jumped out of their Razorback and moved - and the plasma Contemptor Dreadnoughts, I managed to kill all three squads of Horrors. Maybe there were a couple of Horrors left, which I charged with one of my Invictor tactical warsuits and killed them, thus denying my opponent his pillar. It took that amount of firepower because the Changeling was giving them a 5+++ or 6+++ Feel No Pain (I can't remember). The other Invictor...didn't have anything to charge because I wiped out the other two blobs of Horrors. My Razorback opened up with his twin assault cannnons and annihilated the squad of Cultists that were hiding behind cover, and despite the 6+ cover save (which was negated by the AP -2 of the twin assault cannons in Devastator Doctrine), all of them died. So I essentially gained a point for First Strike. YAY! On the other hand, the shooting from my Repulsor Executioner was pretty lackluster. He probably killed a couple of Horrors with his twin heavy bolters or Ironhail heavy stubbers or something, but missed 2 or so of his heavy laser destroyer shots against the Helbrute on the opposite of the table, and failed one of his wounds. I only did one wound, and went to roll a one. So the Helbrute only took 3 wounds (because 1s and 2s count as 3s).

My opponent then moved all his remaining forces, particularly the Daemon Prince, up. He left the Helbrute standing where he was, but the guy, despite using Fire Frenzy, didn't do much damage to the Invictor. He did some damage, though, I'm sure, I just can't remember how much. Just not enough to bring him down to his middle bracket, I think. The Tzaangors Enlightened flew over and put some wounds on the other Invictor, bringing him down to 9 (I think). As for the Tzaangors, they used Dark Matter Crystal and teleported behind my Intercessors, Primaris Captain Fushi and Primaris Librarian, and then proceeded to charge. Here, I used Optimal Repulsion Doctrines and the Stratagem that allows to shoot Deep Striking units with a -1 to hit (Auspex Scanner, was it?), but only killed a couple of Tzaangors. I think. Well, I should have killed 4 with all that shooting, but I can't remember. The Screamers came screaming on my Intercessor squad with the power sword Sergeant and maybe killed 1 or 2 in close combat after charging. The Daemon Prince charged the Invictor tactical warsuit, and for some reason I rolled hot on my saving throws and Feel No Pain, getting a few 6s, and he survived to strike back! He was left with 2 wounds (which counts as 4 because of Flesh is Weak), and could hit back, but he didn't do anything to the Daemon Prince with his 3++ invulnerable save. The Tzaangors basically hit my Captain and only dealt a single wound on an Intercessor because they fluffed their hit and wound rolls against the normal Intercessors (it was Sergeant Tetsuhara's squad), but my Captain made his 5+++ Feel No Pain and survived with 2 wounds. Phew! They then all struck back, and by the end, I think there was about 2 or 3 Tzaangors left, because Shock Assault gave my Space Marines extra attacks, and I did a lot of damage. Captain Fushi, in particular, had about 6 attacks! And Sergeant Tetsuhara had 4, with his thunder hammer! Not to mention the 5 attacks from the Primaris Librarian! So...the Tzaangors were pretty much wiped out, and the survivors fled because of morale or something. I can't remember. Meanwhile my Intercessors killed maybe 1 Screamer and wounded another.

By the end of the battle round, I controlled 3 of the pillars and my opponent had none, thus I scored another point. I also killed more (No Prisoners or No Mercy) units, so that gave me another point, thus allowing me to score 3 points to 0. I don't think my opponent even managed to get First Strike. Ouch.

Turn 2

After that good turn, I made a horrible mistake of getting my Devastators to run back instead of move forward to shoot the Daemon Prince, probably because I had my Invictor tactical warsuit retreat for no reason other than...because I was being stupid. The other Invictor tactical warsuit proceeded toward the Tzaangor Enlightened, and my Contemptor Dreadnoughts moved somewhat forward, as did my Repulsor Executioner, who then proceeded to fire...but before that, my Librarian cast Blessing of the Machine God and succeeded this time, allowing him to hit on a 2+. My Primaris Librarian was out of range for Smite and Machine Flense, so he couldn't do anything. Oh, well. He was my offensive Librarian who was responsible for dealing mortal wounds. Anyway, Captain Fushi, true to his name (it's basically Immortal or can't die in Japanese), refused to die and regained 3 wounds (I rolled well) with his medicae relic. So glad I took that. My Repulsor Executioner destroyed the damned Helbrute this time with his heavy laser destroyer. Phew! He also killed all the Screamers that my Intercessors fell back from, using a combination of twin heavy bolters, Icarus ironhail heavy stubber and Icarus missile pod. Nice! I think he was helped by my Razorback's twin assault cannons. The Contemptor Dreadnoughts, despite directing all of their firepower at the Daemon Prince, only did 2 wounds to him. Damn! And obviously I made the mistake of having my grav Devastators run away from him, so they couldn't shoot him because they were out of range. Terrible mistake. Meanwhile, my 9-wound Invictor (ironically, the proxied one) flamed the Tzaangor Enlightened and killed a bunch of them. He then charged them, and after combat, all but 1 survived. Actually, I think 2 or 3 survived, but they ran away due to morale, leaving just 1. Nice! Well, admittedly, I think the Intercessors also added their firepower into the mix and helped to take out a few of the Tzaangor Enlightened before he charged in. Oh, well...

I think that was it for my turn, and I still controlled 3 out of 4 pillars...for now.

Then my opponent brought in all his reserves, the Flamers and Scarab Occult Terminators appearing right behind Captain Fushi and in front of my Intercessors (Tetsuhara's squad) respectively. The Rubric Marines and Sorcerer in Terminator Armor showed up next to my Intercessors (the squad with the power sword Sergeant). They tried to smite my Intercessors, but I denied it with my Primaris Librarian. Heh! The Changeling for some reason moved toward my Razorback, intending to charge it. The Daemon Prince smite the poor Invictor tactical warsuit, and with 2 wounds remaining, I failed the Feel No Pain and he blew up...dealing 3 mortal wounds to the Daemon Prince. HA HA HA HA! I so did not expect that! Meanwhile Ahriman and friends piled up the mortal wounds on the other Invictor, and left him with 4 or 5, and then charged him, while the remaining Tzaangor Enlightened flew away to put several shots on the Intercessors. The Scarab Occult Terminators also opened fire with their inferno storm bolters. I think 2 guys died. Ouch. The Daemon Prince also used Warptime and charged my grav Devastators, and despite me using Optimal Repulsion Doctrines for a second time, combined with the grav ampliflication Stratagem, I did absolutely no wounds to the Daemon Prince, who proceeded to rip the poor Devastators up in close combat with his malefic talons. On the other side, the Rubric Marines shot the Intercessors to pieces, with only the Sergeant with power sword left, and then they charged and killed him under the weight of Rubric Marine shots. Ouch. They thus captured one pillar that those Intercessors were holding. The Changeling charged the Razorback and trapped him in combat. Oh well. The Scarab Occult Terminators then charged and killed 2 more Intercessors, while putting a wound on Sergeant Tetsuhara, but he survived. He SURVIVED! The Flamers charged and attacked the Primaris Captain in an attempt to kill him as well, but he funilly enough survived through a combination of his invulnerable saves and Feel No Pain, which brought him down to...1 wound or so. Whoa, that was so dangerous!  Captain Fushi just won't die! The funniest thing that occurred, however, was when Ahriman charged my Invictor tactical warsuit. He ate a wound from overwatch, and proceeded to smack the poor guy with his black staff, bringing him down to 2 or 3 wounds. Then I retaliated and essentially punched Ahriman into oblivion with the Invictor fist. Ahriman didn't survive the counterattack and bit the dust (ha ha, get it?). Whoa...I so did not see that coming. Poor Ahriman. That was tragic. I think I managed to kill 1 or 2 Scarab Occult Terminators with Sergeant Tetsuhara's thunder hammer, but for some reason Fushi failed to wound any...well Strength 4 versus Toughness 4, so...

At the end of the battle round, I controlled 2 out of 4 pillars, and my opponent had one. So I had one point. On the other hand, my opponent killed 3 units (Invictor, Devastators, Intercessors) and I killed only 2, so he gained a point.

Turn 3

The center of the map was not looking good for me, especially with the Daemon Prince bearing down on my Contemptor Dreadnoughts, having consolidated toward them. Good thing they weren't that close to the Devastators or they would have been locked in combat. I didn't move anything or had anyone fell back, and my Intercessors and Captain Fushi and Primaris Librarian remained locked in combat. Captain Fushi got back 3 wounds again, bringing him back to 4. Hah! I did move the Company Veterans up, maybe, to fire their plasma at the Rubric Marines, and the Veteran died from his supercharged plasma gun overheating. Ouch. But worth it, because I killed a few Rubric Marines. My Librarian with force axe cast Blessing of the Machine God on the Repulsor Executioner so that he can get a 2+ to hit again. The Primaris Librarian cast Machine Flense and Smite on the Scarab Occult Terminators, but failed the first one and...maybe did one mortal wound to a Scarab Occult Terminator? I can't remember. The Repulsor Executioner also fired everything at the Rubric Marines, and completely wiped them out because of the Onslaught Gatling cannon (and extra -1 AP from Devastator Doctrine negating All is Dust), twin heavy bolters, Ironhail heavy stubbers and more. Add the Intercessors who were camping on the pillar from Turn 1, whose bolt rifles had bolter discipline because they didn't move, I was able to decimate all 10 Rubric Marines with shooting alone. Nice! The Invictor was still locked in combat with the Tzaangor Shaman (I had dedicated all of his attacks against Ahriman last turn) and only did 3 wounds to him, but didn't do much other than that. The Contemptor Dreadnoughts fired everything they had, and a combination of plasma and Cyclone missiles finally took down the Daemon Prince despite his 3+++ invulnerable save. Phew. That gave me some breathing room and Slay the Warlord. The Daemon Prince of Tzeentch was damned tough! Back in close combat, the Terminators continued to fight and I think they wounded the Primaris Librarian, but Sergeant Tetsuhara refused to die, making 3 6s for his saves. Holy Emperor! Tetsuhara is a beast! He just won't die, like Captain Fushi! In the end, he smashed the remaining three Scarab Occult Terminators with his thunder hammer, killing them single-handedly.

Sergeant Tetsuhara deserves a promotion. He'll now be an officer. The guy is a legend! All hail Tetsuhara!

My opponent continued assailing with his flamers, while he had his Tzaangor Shaman retreat, and his Tzaangor Enlighten charge my Primaris Librarian. I think. The Changeling smite one wound off my Razorback, but otherwise they remained in close combat, while the Sorcerer in Terminator Armor wisely kept his distance. I think he tried to do something, but my Librarian with force axe denied him. Maybe. I can't remember. On the other hand, my Primaris Librarian was killed by the Tzaangor Enlightened of all people. Damn. The Flamers did a couple of wounds to Captain Fushi but he just wouldn't die. He would end the game with 2 wounds remaining, standing strong and indomitable to the very end. As would Tetsuhara. HA HA HA HA HA!

At this point, my opponent called the game. Not only was the store closing and we had run out of time, it would be difficult for him to pull back. That third turn saw me claim 1 point for the pillars and another for No Mercy/Prisoners, plus Slay the Warlord, bringing me up to 7 points against his one. He only had a couple of Flamers, a single Tzaangor Enlightened, a Tzaangor Shaman, a Changeling, a Changecaster and a Sorcerer in Terminator Armor left on the table, while I still had plenty, including 1 fresh squad of 5 Intercessors (who would probably shoot the Flamers), Sergeant Tetsuhara, Captain Fushi, a half-dead Invictor tactical warsuit, a completely unscathed Repulsor Executioner, 2 Relic Contemptor Dreadnoughts who had yet to take a wound, a Company Veteran Sergeant, a Librarian with force axe and a Razorback with almost full health. It was pretty overwhelming and one-sided.

Yeah, the Steel Dragons were a lot more powerful than my Imperial Knights, of all armies. How the hell?! I have no idea...

Anyway, the Steel Dragons won this round, but I'm sure the meta will adjust and people will know how to counter the Iron Hands and their Successors soon. The FAQ dropped a day after that match, and my Optimal Repulsion Doctrines had gone up by 1 Command Point! So it might make some difference, I don't know. We'll see. Until then! Let me know what you think!