Anyway, let's get onto it before I forget.
Battle 1
I can't remember what happened here, but I think we both brought Myrmidon Maniples, and my opponent took a Questoris Knight banner (6 Knights?) and a Cerastus Knight banner (2 or 3 Knight Lancers). Our line-ups almost resembled each other, with us bringing identical Warlord Titans, except that he had paired carapace laser blasters instead of paired carapace turbo-laser destructors that I took for my Warlord Titan. Otherwise they had a macro-gatling blaster and a sunfury plasma annihilator. The other Warlord Titan had Apocalypse missile launchers, a Belicosa volcano cannon and Mori quake cannon, same as mine! In place of his Questoris Knights and Cerastus Knights, I brought 2 banners of Acastus Knights and 1 banner of 3 Knight Lancers. I can't remember what he had for his Reaver Titan, but I think he brought a gatling blaster and a laser blaster or something. In contrast, I brought the trusty Apocalypse missile launcher and 2 volcano cannons. Sorry for the lack of photos. I got too excited for the game and forgot to take any pictures. My bad.
It was quite a disastrous game for me, I think I lost 1 banner of Acastus Knights in the first turn alone, probably from First Fire or the combat phase. I think we both drew Engage and Destroy, but I can't remember. I know for sure that I lost both Acastus Knights by the second turn while doing very little damage. My Knight Lancers charged his, after losing one to one of the Warlord Titan's fury, and I failed to kill the opponent's Knight Lancers until my Warlord Titan intervened. His Titans directed their fury at my plasma Warlord and Reaver after the third turn, and by the end of the game I only had one Warlord Titan left. Even though the Questoris Knights struck the plasma Warlord Titan and destroyed him, despite blowing up I failed to kill all of the Questoris Knights, and he still had one remaining.
In the end, I only destroyed one Cerastus Knight banner, and failed to kill or even structually compromise any of my opponent's Titans...I think. I can't remember, but it was quite the one-sided game. Oh, well. In contrast, my opponent destroyed all of my forces, save one Warlord Titan. So that's one Warlord Titan, one Reaver, 2 Acastus Banners and 1 Cerastus banner. Overwhelming victory for him!
Battle 2
In the second game...it was just as one-sided. Weirdly enough. Anyway, this time my opponent brought a Reaver Corsair, so 3 Reaver Titans, all with a bunch of weapons. A Princeps Senioris with a volcano cannon...and I think chainfist and turbo laser destructor. The others had laser blasters and gatling cannons, so pretty cool. He also brought along a supporting Warlord Titan with a Sunfury plasma annihilator and Aurioch power claw as reinforcements, and rounded the rest of the list up with 2 Questoris Knight banners. I think he also had a Cerastus Knight banner of 2 dudes. Definitely.
After the devastating defeat of my Myrmidon Maniple almost a week before, I decided to switch things up. I found that I really like playing Knight Lances and Household forces, so I brought a Knight Lance of Acastus Knights (2 banners of 1 Acastus Knight, and 1 banner of 2 Acastus Knights Porphyrion, one of whom was my High Seneschal) and a Knight Lance of Cerastus Knights and Questoris Knights - 1 banner of Cerastus Knight Lancers with the High Lord Scion and 2 banners of Questoris Knights, which were comprised of 3 Knights Gallant and 3 Knights Crusader respectively. For reinforcements, I brought 2 supporting Warlord Titans - the same old warhorse with the carapace turbo-laser destructors, macro-gatling cannon and Sunfury plasma annihilator and the artillery guy with Apocalypse missile launchers, Belicosa volcanno cannon and Mori quake cannon. Knights are really cheap, and they barely filled out a thousand points, which was why I could put 2 Warlord Titans in the list.
Without the Mori quake cannon and Belicosa volcano cannon, my Acastus Knights ran rampant in this game. In just the first turn alone, they utterly destroyed a Reaver Titan - the one with the volcano cannon, and the Princeps Senioris (which gave me Decapitating Strike). Funnily enough, this was the match where I spent 3 Command Points on the Orbital Bombardment for each Strategy Phase, and I didn't scatter much, actually hitting the Titans and doing a lot more damage than I expected. I was really lucky this game. The Reaver Titans and Warlord Titan, lacking long-range weaponry, had to slowly move up, and I slowly and methodically destroyed them. I lost a banner of Questoris Knights in return when a Reaver Titan and a banner of Questoris Knights marched up to wipe them out, but the surviving Questoris Knight banner and Cerastus Knight Lancers engaged the Reaver Titan in combat to destroy him before they eliminated the survivors of the enemy Questoris Knight banner. The Acastus Knights proceeded to destroy another banner of Questoris Knights, and they wiped out the Cerastus Knights by the third turn, while my Warlord Titan duked it out with his Warlord Titan. By the fourth turn, I destroyed his third and last Reaver Titan with my Knights, denying him Hold the Line (I think that was what he got, in favor of Vital Cargo, while mine was Engage and Destroy). The surviving Acastus Knights (and I'm pretty sure at least 3 of them survived) attacked the Warlord Titan and, together with my Warlord Titan, destroyed him. Thus tabling my opponent. Ouch, that was pretty one-sided. Almost a mirror of the match about a week before, when I was at the receiving end of total annihilation. At least my Warlord Titan survived right at the end.
Battle 3
The final battle was played yesterday...I was practicing for the Renegade tournament in a couple of weeks, so I was doing my best to get as many practice games as possible. Anyway, I brought an almost identical list to the day before, swapping out the Belicosa volcano cannon Warlord Titan for a Reaver Titan with 2 melta cannons and a carapace Vulcan mega-bolter and a single Acastus Knight, so now I have 2 banners of 2 Acastus Knights and 1 banner of 1 in my Acastus Knight Lance.
My opponent switched things up again, and this time he brought the Knife-fighting Maniple or something, with 2 Warhounds and 1 Reaver, while 2 Reavers and 1 Warlord made up a Fortis Maniple. He also brought his own Acastus Knights - just two of them! Interestingly enough, I think that was pretty much all he could squeeze in for 2,000 points. Well, it's the Warlord with the Belicosa volcano cannon and Mori quake cannon, so it shouldn't be too bad.
That's what I thought, anyway.
As it turned out, 2 banners of Acastus Knights (3 in total) annihilated his Princeps Senioris with the volcano cannon before he could get close. His mission was Vital Cargo and mine was Hold the Line, and as it turned out, I blew up the Reaver Titan with the cargo on the very first turn. With just 3 Acastus Knights. Holy...I had used the plasma mines Stratagem to damage the leg of one of the other Reaver Titans, and he essentially got knocked down a peg by my remaining Acastus banner (of 2). On the other side of the table, the Acastus Knights basically destroyed one of my Questoris banners from First Fire alone. The Warlord Titan, for some reason, either didn't shoot my Acastus Knights or maybe he did and he whiffed his Belicosa volcanno cannon shots by rolling double ones on the armor penetration roll. Ouch. The Warhounds moved, but one of them awoke the Machine Spirit when going power to the locomotives and he...stayed still for some reason. Oh dear. My Reaver Titan fired his melta cannons onto the Reaver with the wounded legs while guarding the vital cargo that the destroyed enemy Princeps Senioris had dropped, and damaged him more, but didn't kill him.
I eventually lost one Acastus Knight in one banner, and one of the enemy Reavers hid somewhere while popping off a Blind barrage. The Acastus Knights tried to hit my Warlord Titan because I had my Knights hide behind somewhere. I think they ended up being shaken by a Mori quake cannon shot from the Warlord Titan as he tried to get rid of them with First Fire, and he did better in the second turn to destroy that single Acastus Knight that I mentioned above. I think I managed to wound the second Reaver Titan but the enemy still had 2 Reavers, 2 Warhounds and 1 Warlord, along with the Acastus. My Warlord Titan tried to fire on the Acastus, but I think I didn't do anything. I might be mistaken. The wounded Reaver with Blind Barrage moved right into the face of my Reaver Titan, and for some reason my melta cannons struck once when I rolled a single 6 to get over the Blind Barrage. I think I actually rolled the leg, which allowed me to hit him within fusion range and a couple of criticals. He died, wounded my Reaver in the body and I had a critical and a reactor leak. Well, worth it, though.
The Warhounds then hit my Knights with the flamer, and destroyed a Cerastus Knight and a Questoris Knight. Or I lost another Cerastus...I can't remember. I think I only had one left by the end of turn 3. Anyway, they didn't do much with their shooting, and the Warlord was preoccupied with trying to eliminate the Acastus Knights, but he only got rid of one despite using Maximal Fire on his Sunfury plasma annihilator and all his other weapons. On the other side of the table, my Reaver continued to square off with the other Reaver, and combined with my Acastus, destroyed it. The Warlord destroyed another banner of Acastus and another Acastus, leaving me with just the High Seneschal. The Warhounds split up...and I seized the opportunity to surround one of the Warhounds with my sole surviving Cerastus Knight Lancer and the 2 Questoris Knights. My Warlord Titan lost all his void shields after taking fire from the Warlord, Acastus and Warhound, while my Acastus were all destroyed eventually, I think after the Warhound hit him. My Knights destroyed the Warhound, and boom! It fell over and destroyed one of my Questoris Knights. Meanwhile, my Warlord failed to eliminate the sole enemy Acastus Knight with his turbo-laser destructors. Damn it!
My opponent moved his Warlord Titan and Warhound Titan forward, and my Cerastus Knight got into the back of the Warlord Titan, and took a couple of hits from the defense lasers, while my Questoris got into the face of the sole remaining Acastus Knight...and did absolutely nothing. Fortunately, his Acastus Knight had moved up within range of my Warlord Titan's plasma weapons and I finally eliminated him with a few well-placed shots. The Warlord Titan destroyed my final remaining Acastus Knight, and the poor High Seneschal went down. Ouch. In revenge, my Cerastus Knight Lancer struck him a couple of times in the body and damaged him. We rolled to see if the game went on, and it did!
In the final turn, my Reaver Titan, combined with the Warlord Titan, destroyed the Warhound Titan. On the other side of the table, my Knight Lancer and Questoris Knight, using Coordinated Strike Order, shot the Warlord Titan in the back, and even before I could get to the melee weapon for the Knight Lancer, I actually destroyed the Warlord Titan with a few well-placed Ion Gauntlet blasts, improved to Strengh 7 because of Coordinated Strike, and getting bonuses from hitting in the rear arc and because of the damage from earlier. The Warlord fell to Wild Fire, shot nothing, and completely missed my Knights, so my sole surviving Questoris Knight and Cerastus Knight survived the battle, almost unscathed (I think the both of them were on their last hit point).
With that, my opponent was completely tabled. This was a much closer game, for my Reaver Titan was suffering from critical damage in the body and a couple more hits away from blowing up, my Warlord Titan had no void shields, and my Knight Lances were decimated, with only a single Cerastus Knight and a single Questoris Knight surviving on their last hit points. That was really fun! Still, the Acastus Knights did a lot of damage, and my opponent couldn't score anything because of Vital Cargo. Ouch. Oh, well...
Maybe for friendly games I'll use less Acastus Knights, but for now I'll see how they'll do in Renegade.
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