Another day at Alcazar Prime

So the Knights of House Yato continue to attack Alcazar Prime in an attempt to drive the Warmaster's forces out of the fortress planet. Let's say it didn't go very well for them, despite the Imperial Fists arriving to reinforce them and retaking the garrisons they left in place. Oh, well...

Oh, right. This was pretty much the results of the games of yesterday, after the pickup games.

The first match I had today was the offensive launched on the Harribast East Manufactora, where the Knights of House Yato intended to seize the surplus vehicles and the laborers and servitors who work there. Unfortunately, the Knights and their Imperial Fists allies were blown away by the Iron Warriors, who utterly wrecked them with missiles from the Tyrant Siege Terminators and firepower from three Dreadnoughts. Not to mention the Spartan Land Raider and Proteus Land Raider. The Armiger Warglaives managed to kill all the Troops, but the three Contemptor Dreadnoughts wiped them out. Ouch. The Harribast East Manufactora fell to the traitors.

I believe the Traitors won this round, with them sweeping off the majority of the Loyalists off the objectives. Two Warhound Titans dueled in the Hives of Alcazar-Tetra, and despite the Imperial Fists trying to fend off the World Eaters, I think the World Eaters won. The Thousand Sons also defeated somebody, though another Thousand Sons player tied with Dark Angels. There was a protracted battle between Dark Angels and Iron Warriors, which ended in the Iron Warriors' victory (I think). By and large, the round didn't go well for the Loyalists, and the Traitors seized the round.

In the second match, the Imperial Fists launched an assault on Colossibast South and reclaimed the fortress from the World Eaters lurking in there. Oh, it was a Zone Mortalis game using the White Dwarf rules. Despite suffering horrendous losses, the Phalanx Warders claimed an objective, and the Cataphractii Terminators wiped out an entire Red Butcher squad, along with the Praetor himself, to earn the Imperial Fists Attrition and Slay the Warlord in a Zone Mortalis game. Frankly, I got lucky, and made a few mistakes with the rules, which was why I won, but it was a close match. The World Eaters would have won if the game went on to turn 4 - they were dominating two objectives and my Tartaros Terminator command squad would eventually succumb to the Contemptor Dreadnought's brutal blows despite their Vigil storm shields providing them a 3++ invulnerable saves.

The second round went better for the Loyalists, who took this round. I can't really remember what happened, but I believe the Dark Angels won against the Sons of Horus (I think?). The Custodes got wiped out by Iron Warriors, though, and...yeah, I honestly can't remember much fo anything from here.

The third round was an epic affair...for everybody else. The Knights had to defend the Western Airfields, but the Thousand Sons completely wrecked them. With two Leviathan Dreadnoughts and three Osiron Contemptor Dreadnoughts, the latter denying me reactions and pinning me with telepathic spells, I simply couldn't do a single thing or react. Lost my Knight Errant in the first turn before he could fire a shot, and the whole game went downhill from there. Almost got tabled, and in the end, I only had a single Archmagos Prime and an Armiger Knight Moirax left before the game ended. I only killed like 8 dudes from a heavy support squad, the three Contemptor Dreadnoughts and one of the two Leviathan Dreadnoughts, as well as a handful of Tartaros Terminators, but...nope, that was it. Oh, the Archmagos Prime killed a support tactical squad with rotor cannons by himself, soloing them with his power axe and wiping them out in sweeping advance after literally tanking their 20 shots by himself, saving all of them on his 2+ armor save (and their Strength 3 shots wounding his Toughness 5 stature on 6s). Jeez, that was surprising.

It was still an awful loss, though, but I completely expected that. I know the Thousand Sons player, he's a competitive player with a lot of amazing strategies, and he really knows how to utilize his list. In contrast, I just suck. I'm not a very good player, ha ha. I just play for fun, and I love my Knights, but I'm not sure how to maximize their potential. They are pretty...skewed. Either they own hard or they get destroyed hard. It is what it is. That's all I can say. Sigh. Can't make any excuses, I screwed up.

The other games seemed pretty close, though Raven Guard tabled the other Thousand Sons player. I think Custodes drew with World Eaters, and the Dark Angels won a handful of games. Imperial Fists beat Iron Warriors in an epic grudge match too, and the Loyalists managed to pull ahead ever so slightly. The deciding game was between Blood Angels and Sons of Horus, where Horus himself descended to slay the angel. Sanguinius challenged him and the two of them traded blows before the angel finally fell to the archtraitor. After laying low poor Sanguinius, Horus was promptly shot off the board by illiastus assault cannons, and the vengeful Blood Angels proceeded to annihilate the remaining Sons of Horus. That decided the round and Loyalists won that.

I forgot to take a picture of the final score, but the Loyalists pulled ahead after this. I hope I remember to take another picture before the 4th round tomorrow.

In terms of total campaign points, though, Loyalists trail the Traitors by 10 points, especially after the disastrous Adeptus Titanicus showing yesterday. Ouch. Oh, well. We'll see what happens tomorrow. There are two more rounds, and this might be decided...I dunno how. We'll see.

Anyway, it's late and I need rest. See you tomorrow...