Big Guns never tire

So I managed to get another game today, this time against Dark Angels. We played 1,500 points instead of 2,000, and so I was forced to cut my Forgefiends from my list, and halve my beloved Scarab Occult Terminator squad. So my Thousand Sons list today looks like this:

Thousand Sons Cult of Magic Battalion
Sorcerer in Terminator Armor (Devastating Sorceery, Arcane Focus)
Sorcerer in Terminator Armor (High Magister)
5 Scarab Occult Terminators (hellfyre missile rack)
5 Rubric Marines (warpflamers)
5 Rubric Marines (inferno boltguns)
10 Cultists (heavy stubber)

Blue Corsairs Battalion
Sorcerer
Dark Apostle
Dark Disciples
5 Chaos Space Marines (boltguns)
2 x 5 Chaos Space Marines (bolt pistols, power axe, chainswords, meltagun)

Imperial Knight...ahem, I mean Chaos Knight Super-heavy Auxiliary
Knight Despoiler, thermal cannon and Avenger gatling cannon (Tzeentchian Pyrothrone, warp-tainted hull)

My opponent brought a Battalion, Spearhead and Supreme Command detachments.

Dark Angels Battalion
Master Lazarus
Primaris Lieutenant
2 x 5 Intercessors (bolt rifles)
5 Intercessors (bolt carbines)
Primaris Apocethary
Darkshroud

Dark Angels Spearhead
Techmarine
Predator (twin lascannon)
5 Devastators (2 lascannons, 1 missile launcher, 1 heavy bolter)
5 Hellblasters (plasma incinerators)

Dark Angels Supreme Command
Azareal
Primaris Librarian
Primaris Lieutenant

And there you have it...Dark Angels versus Thousand Sons. A re-enactment of the war in the Stygies Sector, or on the Planet of Sorcerers itself! I wanted to play the narrative mission as outlined in Ritual of the Damned, but...nope. I don't have Magnus, and I don't intend to buy him. As much as I like Magnus, I'm not a fan of his model, and I don't want to play him anyway. He doesn't seem that fun to play with, if I'm being honest.



Anyway, we decided to play Big Guns Never Tire, and he got the first turn. The first turn went as you would expect, and while long-range fire from his Devastators did 4 wounds to my Knight, he survived most of the Predator's shots and stuff. On the other hand, the huge blob of Dark Angels advanced the table, quick as you please, with the Intercessors equipped with carbines following Lazarus, the Primaris Lieutenant and Primaris Librarian up to confront my psyker Knight, while Azareal led the other 2 squads of Intercessors, the Hellblasters, the other Primaris Lieutenant and the Apocethary toward my infantry. Needless to say, my Rubric Marines were wiped out from plasma fire, but since he advanced, he couldn't shoot his bolt rifles, if I remember correctly. Or if he did, he shot them into my poor Rubric Marines. So First Blood to him.

I had my dudes move up the table too. Funnily enough, my Chaos Space Marines were left unscathed in the first turn, so I could advance and charge (Blue Corsairs Renegade Trait). I lost a couple of Chaos Space Marines to overwatch, my Dark Apostle failed, but my Chaos Space Marines all died. Pathetically enough, my Blue Corsairs Sorcerer failed all of his psychic spells, probably because he isn't as professional as the real Thousand Sons. My Knight had rinsed the Intercessors almost clean with his Avenger gatling cannon, with just one guy left, and destroyed the Predator with a well rolled thermal cannon shot (I rolled 6 for D6 shots!). Boom, went the Predator, and my Knight scored First Strike for me. Then he charged the Primaris Librarian and sole surviving Intercessor. Needless to say, Lazarus and the Primaris Lieutenant Heroically Intervened, but I managed to stomp the Intercessor to oblivion, but couldn't manage to stomp the Librarian to death, leaving the guy with just one health. Oh, the Librarian Denied the Witch for my Smite, which sucked for me. Ugh. Anyway, with one wound left, he swung back...and didn't wound my Knight. On the other side of the table, Azareal used the Counter-offensive Stratagem to kill 3-4 Chaos Space Marines, leaving just the Sergeant on the table. Then my Chaos Space Marines went and killed a single Hellblaster and wounded one, while their meltagun earlier had killed a single Hellblaster when I advanced and fired, thankfully the -1 to assault weapons if you advanced and fired them. So that left him with 3 Intercessors, and they proceeded to kill all but 1 Sergeant, who promptly failed his morale and ran away. The other Sergeant, on the other hand, survived the retaliation from the Intercessors by making all of his armor saves. What a champion. Lazarus proceeded to wreck the Knight, dealing 6 wounds because he could re-roll failed wound rolls and damage rolls against psykers...and my Knight was a psyker because I took the Tzeentchian Pyrothrone. No regrets, though. Tzeentch and sorcery all the way!

My opponent cast Smite, but with my Knight being a Dreadblade, his Leadership was up to 10, so even though I failed to deny his Mind Wipe spell, my Leadership was somehow higher than his. Phew. On the other side of the table, Azareal, the two squads of Intercessors, and Nightshroud killed the Dark Apostle and Sorcerer with their shots and attacks, while the Primaris Apocethary healed the wounded Hellblaster. The Sergeant, once again, survived all the melee attacks from the Hellblasters because of his armor saves, but he didn't do much in return. Oh well. I then paid 2 Command Points for Counteroffensive, and my Knight killed Lazarus with his Titanic Feet...but not before Lazarus reduced my Knight to just 6 wounds remaining because of his ability that allowed him to fight as if it was the fight phase if he died. Damn. The Librarian and Lieutenant then wounded my Knight, bringing him down to 4 wounds, if I'm not mistaken. Ouch!

Then my Scarab Occult Terminators and Rubric Marines, along with my Sorcerers came in, and I proceeded to Smite Azareal to death, using Cabailistic Focus, the Familiar, and Arcane Focus to bring my Smite to over 10, and rolled a 6 to deal 6 mortal wounds to the guy. Hah! Azareal is dead! I then proceeded to use Astral Blast and killed another Hellblaster and 2 Intercessors while injuring the Apocethary, while doing 4 mortal wounds to the Darkshroud. Unfortunately, my poor Sergeant, who survived all the melee attacks thus far...ended up falling to the Astral Blast. Oh, well. He served a greater purpose. The shooting attacks then wiped out the Hellblasters, I believe, but the missiles failed to do anything to the Nightshroud. My Rubric Marines took out a single Devastator with Smite, and then killed a second Devastator with their inferno boltguns, but failed their charge. On the other hand, my Scarab Occult Terminators managed to make their charge into the Intercessors and killed all but one of them, while the Primaris Lieutenant and Primaris Apocethary Heroically Intervened, and didn't kill any of them. Phew. My Knight finally killed both the Librarian and Lieutenant with his heavy flamer and heavy stubber, and his Avenger gatling cannon respectively (I forgot to just Smite the Librarian...what the hell was I doing?).



I lost a Scarab Occult Terminator eventually, as the other squad of Intercessors piled in, and the sheer number of attacks took its toll, despite me casting Weaver of Fates and Glamor of Tzeentch on them. The Devastators killed a Rubric Marine with the Sergeant's combi-flamer, and I lost another to overwatch and I charged them. I did kill a Devastator (the Sergeant) in close combat and another from shooting, though. As for my Terminators, they wiped out the Apocethary and Lieutenant, while my Sorcerers in Terminator Armor slowly smite the Darkshroud to death. Left with one wound, I had them charge and finish it off in close combat, while my Terminators slowly worked their way through the Intercessors, who survived...mostly. The Apocetheary was even able to revive one guy. The techmarine fired his conversion beamer, but I made my saves, and my injured Knight stayed on 4 wounds.

Eventually, I managed to take out all the Devastators and survived the Techmarine's power axe, who for some reason charged my Rubric Marines, while my Scarab Occult Terminators killed all the Intercessors, Lieutenant and Apocethary, not just with their power swords but with Smite as well. I effectively tabled my opponent, and was way ahead...interesting. The Techmarine was left, but my opponent conceded because there was no way he could win, not when his Techmarine was literally the only model left. I controlled at least 2 objectives, and my Scarab Occult Terminators could control the third, and I killed 3 of his Heavy Support units to get the points, while he couldn't even kill my Knight (we agreed to count my Knight as Heavy Support for the purpose of this game). That was just weird. Oh well...a win is a win, I guess, but my list was a little too strong. Strangely enough, Lazarus should have helped his list a ton by giving him a 4+++ Feel No Pain against psychic spells and mortal wounds, while also granting a 5+++ Feel No Pain against mortal wounds in the psychic phase for his friends 6" away from him. But nope, he ended up getting pasted by my Knight, of all things, far from Azareal and the majority of his forces. Huh...I'm sure there should be a way for my opponent to counter my psychic spells and stuff, but I don't know what it is...oh well.

That was fun, though!



Oh, after the game, I built a second Taurox Prime for my Kamikaze Troopers, also known as Kamikaze Draconians. I magnetized the turret, so he can switch between the Taurox gatling cannon and the Taurox battle cannon, though I think the gatling cannon will be my go-to for most games. We'll see!



Speaking of which, I also painted my Forgefiend. Do you remember that one of my Forgefiends from yesterday was all black? Yeah, I spent the next couple of hours after yesterday's game painting him, but I couldn't finish in time. I was left with just the base. Fortunately, I had a little time after building my Taurox Prime to finish painting the base of my Forgefiend. Me being me, I went for the usual snowy base because I like snow, and so he now looks like this.



I wonder if he looks cool. Maybe not, but I really like the snow. My Thousand Sons and Blue Corsairs, as well as Knights, are all trampling about in the snow anyway, so this will fit them more thematically. The other Forgefiend stands out with his grass base, though, but I think it's fine...oh well. We'll see!