I attended the June Judgement Munera! Rogue Trader Tournament yesterday. From now on, I'm going to make sure I remember the names of the RTT I attend, so I changed the RTT's title last week to Summer Startup Munera! RTT to match it, since I'm attending quite a lot of tournaments this summer. Might as well, they are a great place to meet new people and improve my skills (though I'm not sure if I have improved, I tend to get crushed easily, ha ha).
This time, having learned from last week's crushing defeats, I brought an all-Knight army and ditched the infantry altogether. I don't know how they worked, but suffice to say, the objectives didn't really favor Knights at all. I'm beginning to wonder if I should add an allied Adeptus Mechanicus patrol detachment or something, just to get more points on objectives. I couldn't get Stranglehold at all, for example, and I couldn't do the Banners or Octavius data ones either. Ugh. It's so hard to play with Knights. Plus they are pretty binary. Either I crush the opponent or I get crushed, though the first game was closer than I thought it would be. Heh.
Well, anyway, here's my list. No, I'm not buying a Knight Magaera just to chase the meta and win tournaments. That's absurd. So you won't find any Knights Magaera in my list, or Armigers Moirax with lightning locks.
Super-heavy Detachment (Glorified History, Slayers of Beast and Questor Imperialis allegiance)
Questoris Knight Preceptor, multilaser, Stormspear rocket pod, Ion Bulwark and Sanctuary
Questoris Knight Crusader, rapid-fire battle cannon, Ironstorm missile pod, Endless Fury
Cerastus Knight Lancer, Strike and Shield
2 Armigers Warglaives with meltaguns
2 Armigers Moirax with volkite veuglaires
And...yeah, a full Knight list. Let's see how they fared in the RTT yesterday! Well, you already know that it wasn't so hot for me, but whatever.
Match 1
The first mission was Surround and Destroy, and my opponent played Aeldari. Craftworld Aeldari, actually. I can't remember what his list was, exactly, but it consisted of two detachments.
Patrol/Vanguard (I can't remember) Detachment (Expert Crafters and Hunters of Ancient Relics)
Farseer Skyrunner?
Warlock Skyrunner?
17 Dire Avengers (I think)
5 Dire Avengers (I think, maybe he had more...I shouldn't have given back his Eldar list)
6/7 Striking Scorpions (I think)
6 Fire Dragons
Wave Serpent
Lots of Shining Spears
Spearhead Detachment (Expert Crafters and Masters of Concealment)
Farseer Skyrunner?
2/3 squads of 3 Dark Reapers
2 Wraithseers
Something like that, but I could have made a lot of mistakes. I made the mistake of picking Stranglehold for one of my secondary objectives, though To the Last was a good choice (for this particular game) and Abhor the Witch, considering the number of pskyers he had. He picked Psychic Ritual, Titan Hunter (I think?) and Retrieve Octavius Data.
I managed to get first turn, so I basically charged my Knights up the table, grabbed at least three objectives, and took out a bunch of Dire Avengers (or was it Dark Reapers? I can't remember) with my Knight Lancer. I also took out quite a few Shining Spears with my other Knights, their thermal spears, las-impulsor and rapid-fire battle cannons going into them. Oh, and the volkite. I love volkite. But other than that, I'm not sure what happened. He then did some damage to my Knight Lancer with Fire Dragons and Dark Reapers, charged him with a Wraithseer, only for my Knight Lancer to destroy the poor Wraith-construct in close combat. Abhor the Witch! Yay! His Fire Dragons eventually destroyed my Knight Lancer after a ton of shooting, while his Shining Spears, Dire Avengers and other units slowly wiped out my Armigers Moirax with a combination of shooting and melee. Ouch. On the other hand, my two Questoris Knights began to wipe out his entire army, destroying the Shining Spears and second Wraithseer, while my Armigers Warglaives took out the Skyrunners and a bunch of Dark Reapers and Dire Avengers. The Striking Scorpions deep strike to plant Octavius Data, only for my Knight Crusader to clean them off the board before he joined my Knight Preceptor in erasing the 17-men Dire Avengers from existence. His Fire Dragons eventually took out one of my Armiger Warglaive, but by the end of the battle, despite him doing his best, both my Questoris Knights survived to net me 10 points for to the last. He scored a lot of points for Retrieve Octavius Data and Psychic Ritual, and for the life of me, I can't remember if his third secondary was Titan Hunter. I do know I had a lot of points from Abhor the Witch, thanks to me killing all the seers and Wraithseers (that was 13 points alone!).
Holy Terra, after this game, I realized I have been getting the range of the Armiger Warglaive's thermal spear wrong all this while! I always thought it was 36", the same as the Knight Errant's thermal cannon, but it's not! It's only 30"! If I see my opponent again, I will apologize. Stupid mistake! Ugh, sorry!
We also spent the whole game controlling about 3 objectives each, so I never got Stranglehold until the very last turn, when I nearly tabled him and he had like a bunch of Fire Dragons left. So eventually I won the game 75-74 or something like that. It was really, really close! Phew!
Match 2
My second game was against Ultramarines! This time, I do have his list with me!
Battalion Detachment (Ultramarines)
Chapter Master in Phobos Armor
Primaris Chaplain on bike, Catechism of Fire, Recitation of Focus, Litany of Hate, Master of Sanctity
Primaris Techmarine, Master of the Forge
5 Incursors
5 Incursors
5 Infiltrators
5 Infiltrators
2 Invictor Tactical Warsuits, ironhail autocannons
2 Redemptor Dreadnoughts, macro plasma incineator
6 Eradicators with melta rifles
Gladiator Reaper
Well, unfortunately for my opponent, this turned out to be quite the one-sided game. The mission this time was Battle Lines, which was pretty easy for me. What made it particularly difficult for my opponent was that I went first, so I proceeded to...yeah, wreck face. This time, I picked To the Last, Bring it down and Behind Enemy Lines (having learned that Strangehold was not exactly good for me, but now that I think about it, it would have been better for me this mission...). My opponent picked Titan Hunter, Raise the Banners High (I think?), and Engage on all Fronts, if I'm not mistaken.
Like I said, I went first, so I proceeded to destroy one of his Invictor Warsuits (my Knight Lancer charging forward and spearing him with his shock lance). I heavily wounded another, and also killed 2 Infiltrator squads...well, to be more precise, I killed 1 squad, but the other survived with 2 guys remaining. I also wounded the Gladiator Reaper, but that was about it, I think. Then his Eradicators came out, his Redemptor Dreadnoughts charged forward, and I lost my Knight Preceptor to the Eradicators. And I think one Armiger Warglaive (I can't remember). I was able to kill his Redemptor Dreadnought in combat (my Knight Lancer), so yay. I also popped the Stratagem to blow my Armiger Warglaive up, and he took out the remaining two Infiltrators, but failed to kill the Invictor. In my second turn, I proceeded to finish off the Invictor Tactical Warsuit, destroyed the second Redemptor Dreadnought and wiped out both Incursor squads. I was trying to ping away at the Eradicators with the Ironstorm missile pod, and I finally killed one. He responded by trying to destroy my Knight Lancer with his remaining Eradicators, but I made a clutch save and kept him alive. I did finally lose my second Armiger Warglaive, though I can't remember how. I succeeded in charging and killing his Chaplain on a bike, and when he died, I tried to blow him up, but failed despite spending 2 Command Points on a Stratagem. Meanwhile, my remaining Armigers Moirax and Knight Crusader destroyed the wounded Gladiator Reaper, and I wiped out both the Eradicators and the Chapter Master in Phobos Armor before descending upon his Primaris Techmarine and killing him too. Having effectively tabled him on turn 4, I spent the last turn advancing both Armigers Moirax up the table to get Behind Enemy Lines (my Knight Lancer getting it as well when he charged ahead earlier).
I managed to win 76-19, with my opponent getting 9 points from Titan Hunter. It was more one-sided than I would have liked, and I felt sorry for him. Damn, I thought it would be as close as the Eldar game, but I guess Ultramarines have it very, very rough.
Match 3
The less said about this, the better...
This time, my opponent was Sisters of Battle or Adepta Sororitas, as we know them to be. He had a lot of Paragon Warsuits. Um, what was his list again?
Battalion Detachment (Order of the Valorous Heart)
Morvenn Vahl (I think she might be taken in a Supreme Command detachment, but I could be mistaken)
Palatine
20 Sisters
2x10 Sisters
Dogmata
Hospitaller
2x3 Paragon Warsuits
Exorcist
2x2 Mortifiers
Let's just say...Order of the Valorous Heart is a pain to play against. Ignores AP -1 weapons? Oh, my poor Armigers Moirax and Ironstorm missile pod (and my Knight Lancer, but he doesn't really shoot with his shock lance much anyway). Turns AP -2 weapons into AP -1? That's about every weapon in my army, including Titanic Feet. Endless Fury/Avenger Gatling cannon, rapid-fire battle cannon, low-intensity las-impulsor, and Stormspear rocket pod...only things I get that ignore them are melta, and they have a 6++ invulnerable save. Not to mention, Morvenn Vahl halves damage, and they shrug off mortal wounds on a 5+, so my volkite did absolutely nothing. 3 mortal wounds? Oh, my opponent rolled 2 5s and a 6. What? Yeah...that was how one-sided it was.
My Secondaries was To the Last, Bring it down and Behind Enemy Lines. Needless to say, I only got Bring it down. I think my opponent took Titan Hunter (no, he definitely took Titan Hunter), Sacred Ground and...Engage on all Fronts, I think? I can't remember what the third secondary was. Sorry.
Well, anyway, my opponent got first turn. I mitigated that by keeping all my Knights behind, so nothing happened in the first turn, my Knights survivcd. Heh. However, when I tried to shoot the Sisters off the table...let's just say nothing happened. I killed maybe 8 Sisters in a 10-men squad camping on an objective despite my Knight Lancer doing 15 stomp attacks. And despite the 2D6 blast weapons, I couldn't kill even half of the 20-woman Sister squad. Jesus, that Order of the Valorous Heart is tough. Like, really tough. And they ignored the mortal wounds that my Armigers Moirax dished out. Sigh. That was really bad.
They grabbed all the objectives except 2, killed a couple of my Armigers and destroyed my Knight Lancer in combat. I blew him up...and while I killed the last 2 Sisters of that squad, I did like 1 mortal wound to Morvenn Vahl and the Paragon Warsuits that killed him. Sigh...not a very good day. I couldn't even kill the Exorcist, failing to wound it despite hitting it, and yeah...
I think I finally managed to kill all 3 Paragon Warsuits with my Armiger Warglaive, and I also took out a bunch of Mortifiers - I think 3 of them, but another 3 Paragon Warsuits showed up in my backline and began to tear apart my Knight Crusader. I did take out one, but that was about it...
In the end, I was tabled by turn 4. Achieving absolutely zero for the primary objectives, and almost nothing for the secondaries. Thanks to Bring it Down, I got 7 points, for a total of 17 points, but that was brutal. Ouch.
Well, at least I'm going to learn from this game. First...secondaries. I'm going to need infantry to do some of the Shadow Operations Secondaries, which will get me at least a few points. I'm also going to need more AP -3 weaponry - my army lacks that unless I get in close combat, and even then that's only for their big melee weapons (reaper chainsword, Cerastus shock lance). I have the high-intensity las-impulsor, but obviously you're not going to use the D6 shots against 20 Sisters. You would rather use the 2D6 shots and get all 12 hits and hope for the best. I need some infantry to plant banners or drop Octavaius data, which might get me some points at least. I don't know. I know I should have chosen better Secondaries, that's for sure. Probably need some deep striking units (my Sicarian Ruststalkers come to mind). We'll see.
Fortunately, we have another RTT next week. The Meltdown Mayhem at Phoenix. We'll see how I'll do, I might get destroyed again and switch back to an all-Knight list. I mean, despite the one-sided slaughter in the third game, I still won 2 out of 3 matches, so it wasn't so bad. Maybe I should stick to my all-Knight list, but I feel like there's still a lot of room for improvement. Like, you know, it isn't enough just to shoot the enemy and try to outlast. To the Last was not a very good secondary to rely on, considering that everyone is going to shoot my Knights to death, and I can't do the Shadow Operations or the Battlefield Supremacy ones very well, not with just Knights. We shall see. I'm not sure how it will go, but yeah. I'll figure it out somehow.
Right now, I think I'll just swap the Knight Crusader out for a Knight Atrapos for more AP -3 shooting (and he's tougher anyhow, not to mention much better in melee), and take out the Armigers Moirax (who aren't all that good, unfortunately, except againt Invictor Tactical Warsuits) for a bunch of infantry. I like my Sicarian Ruststalkers, so I'll throw them in with a couple of Skitarii infantry, and they are pretty flexible because I can have them walk off the table or perform Shadow Operations if needed (whether it's Retrieve Octavius Data or raise the banners). Even if they die, they can at least grab me some Victory points. We will see! Until then!
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