Second Rogue Trader Tournament

 Hello, everyone! Sorry for the late battle report, it has been a long day and I dozed off immediately when I reached home. Otherwise I would have written this last night instead (I wanted to write about the new Adeptus Mechanicus codex today...). But yeah, whatever happened has happened, no use whining about it. So yesterday, I went to an Incursion (1,000 points) Rogue Trader Tournament at Next Level Wargames at Woodbury, and it's a great place, so if you have a chance, visit it. Owner is awesome, and you get a discount if you buy stuff from there. Looking forward to a Strike Force RTT in future.

So...1,000 points, and I'm still playing Imperial Knights (since the Adeptus Mechanicus codex only came out today, I wasn't familiar with the points, rules and I have yet to buy and build my Skitarii Marshal). Good thing I ordered the codex and Skitarii Marshal from Dreamers Vault, so I'm relieved with that (it's sold out at Next Level Wargames and online). Hell, even the Skitarii Vanguard/Rangers are all sold out. Damn. Well, not that it matters to me because my primary faction is Imperial Knights! So what do I have in my Imperial Knight list for a 1,000 point game?

Imperial Knight Super-heavy Detachment, Custom Knight Household Traditions (Glorified History, Slayer of Beasts), Questoris Imperialis Alignment

Knight Preceptor (Warlord, Ion Bulwark and Sanctuary)

2 Armigers Moirax with 2 volkite veuglaires each

2 Armigers Warglaive with meltaguns

3 battles in one day, so let's get to it!

First Battle - Reconnassiance

The first battle was the Reconnaissance mission from the Grand Tournament Pack 2020 (2021 is coming out next week! I'll probably have to get it). So 4 Objectives. My opponent was an Adeptus Custodes player who brought a Shield Captain on foot (with the Feel No Pain Warlord Trait), Shield Captain on Jetbike, 4 Jetbikes, 2 squads of 3 Custodians, and a single squad of Sisters of Silence.

I ended up going first, even though I wanted to go second. Scratching my head and wondering what to do, I had my Knight Preceptor go up the table, flanked by the two Armigers Warglaive while my Armigers Moirax grabbed both objectives on my side of the table. With a bit of shooting, I think I killed just 2 jetbikes...that was it. My opponent then zoomed his surviving jetbikes up, including his shield captain, to attack and kill my Armiger Moirax on one objective, who promptly blew up and killed another jetbike and did a few mortal wounds to the Shield Captain. Meanwhile, three Custodian Guards moved out and fired and charged my Armiger Warglaive...only to do absolutely nothing and get wrecked in combat instead (it took maybe two turns of melee combat). Uh...whoops?

My Knight Preceptor moved up further and tried to shoot the Custodians, but maybe I failed to kill anyone because of bad rolling, I can't remember. I charged the Shield Captain, only to fail my wound rolls and took some damage, damn. Meanwhile, my Armiger Warglaive moved forward and shot and charged the last surviving jetbike dude, killing him. The Shield Captain, on the other hand, charged my Armiger Warglaive in return...and failed all his wound rolls. And despite having the ability to reroll wound rolls, he failed all of his wound rolls AGAIN. Ouch. Damn. My Armiger Warglaive ended up killing the poor dude. Yikes.

It took a couple of rounds, but my Knight Preceptor finally managed to kill the Shield Captain in melee, and with combined shooting from him, my other Armiger Warglaive - who had moved onto an objective after erasing the first Custodian squad - and surviving Armiger Moirax, we managed to wipe out the second Custodian squad. Meanwhile, the Sisters of Silence had advanced in an effort to deploy scramblers, only to run into my first Armiger Warglaive - the one who had successfully killed two jetbikes - including the Shield Captain - and he slew a couple of them with his melta weapons before charging and...cleaving them apart.

Needless to say, I tabled the poor Custodes table, and I think I had like 70+ points to his 30+. Damn. A first win for me, but that was brutal.

Second Battle - Rise of the Machine Spirit

My second match was against a Salamanders player with 6 Assault Centurions, who were being led around by a Chief Apocethary (damn, that guy was annoying), some Salamanders Dreadnought Character from Forge World, and 3 tactical squads. This did not end well for me.

My opponent went first and he moved his Assault Centurions up. Despite my efforts to keep my Knights back, I almost lost one Armiger Warglaive to melta from the Assault Centurions, with only 3 wounds left. My Knight Preceptor moved up in an attempt to try to plug the gap in my defenses, while my full-heallth Armiger Warglaive moved up. I killed one tactical squad and perhaps 3 Centurions after a lot of shooting from everyone, and I think I took maybe 1 wound off the Dreadnought. My Armiger Warglaive charged the Centurions, but I don't think it was enough, he died in overwatch, and he failed to blow up. Damn. On the bright side, the Centurions failed morale and lost another 2! What...the f? They rolled a 6 for Leadership...twice. So one guy fled, and then he rolled a 1 for Combat Attrition. That left him with one Centurion.

My poor Knight was reduced to 11 wounds or so after the Dreadnought Character fried him with his Dreadfire flamers. Oh, and the Apocethary simply brought back one Centurion to life with a Stratagem. Ouch. Unfortunately, he failed his charges. Phew. I know I killed his Dreadnought Character in close combat with my Knight Preceptor, only for him to fall to the Centurions in close combat, and he blew up this time, but despite killing yet another Centurion, I was only able to do 3 mortal wounds to the Apocethary. Damn.

The rest of the battle went as you might expect. I erased another tactical squad with my Armiger Warglaive, but my two Armigers Moirax were destroyed by the resurrecting Centurions (good lord, the ability to revive them is ridiculous). Eventually, I did a last charge of my Armiger Warglaive into the Centurions as a last hurrah in the final turn, but he did nothing and simply fell to their drills. I got tabled in the very last turn.

That was not a very good game. I think I had like 30 over points compared to my opponent's 60+ or 70+, which was a reversal of the previous game.

Third Battle - Raid

The final match was against an Emperor Spears player (he should be playing Salamanders, though). Since this is a longer list, I'll list it out properly.

Primaris Chaplain on Bike (Warlord, super Chaplain)

Primaris Captain with storm shield

Incursors (I think? The ones who auto-wound on hit rolls of 6s)

Assault Intercessors

2 squads of 3 Aggressors with flamestorm gauntlets

3 Eradicators

3 Outriders

Yeah, I think that was it. He came in with his Primaris Chaplain on Bike and Outriders, zoomed into one of my Armiger Warglaives and almost wrecked him in combat, but fortunately, my Knight Preceptor was on hand to Heroically Intervene, so the Chaplain hit him instead, doing maybe four or so wounds? And my Knight Preceptor failed to wound him at all with his Titanic Feet, me rolling all 2s. Wait, why do 2s not wound the Primaris Chaplain? Well, because my opponent popped off the Transhuman Physiology Stratagem so I can only wound him on 4s. Damn. On the other hand, my Armiger Warglaive killed the Outriders, so no more bikes except the Primaris Chaplain.

My Knight Preceptor then moved up, as did my other Armiger Warglaive and one of my Armigers Moriax. Between all the shooting, I was somehow able to kill all the Aggressors and wound the Primaris Chaplain on bike. However, the Primaris Chaplain simply blitzed and destroyed my Armiger Warglaive in combat without taking any wounds in return, and I failed to blow up. Damn. He then charged both of my Armigers Moriax with his Primaris Chaplain on bike and Primaris Captain with storm shield respectively. I did several mortal wounds to the Primaris Captain with storm shield on overwatch, and the poor guy didn't wound my Armiger Moirax much. On the other hand, the Primaris Chaplain on bike utterly destroyed my poor Armiger Moirax Ouch. On the bright side, my Armiger Moirax blew up and I killed the Primaris Chaplain with mortal wounds. Heh. On the other side of the table, the Eradicators took off like 11 wounds from my Armiger Warglaive...but failed to kill him in combat when they charged him.

Fortunately, my surviving Armiger Moirax killed the Primaris Captain by shooting into him with his Volkite. Nice! Yeah, vehicles can shoot in combat now, but at a -1 to hit for heavy weapons. Then my Armiger Warglaive, with 1 wound remaining, ran away and advanced to a backfield objective. My Knight Preceptor then moved up to shoot and then charge the Eradicators, wiping them out from the battlefield.

My opponent tried to move his Incursors up, forcing me to retreat my wounded Armiger Moirax. Then during my turn, I erased the Incursors with a combination of shooting from my Knight Preceptor and Armiger Moirax, which meant I didn't have to charge them (I think?). The Assault Interecessors tried to run out of their Objective to at least kill the 1-wound Armiger Warglaive, but even with advancing, he was simply too far away from them to hit with their heavy bolt pistols or charge...and my Knight Preceptor simply wiped them off the board. Effectively tabling my opponent.

I think I had like 70+ points again, to my opponent's 30+, which effectively brought me up to 186 points total for yesterday's RTT. With 2 wins and a single loss, I ranked second. Phew! That was brutal and fun! I would love to participate in another RTT again! Hopefully in bigger games this time!