Friday 12 June 2015

Blog Wars 9 1850pt battle report - nids vs Imperial Knights/Dark Angels

Wouldn't you know it, I've actually evaded quite a lot of Imperial Knights since their introduction over a year ago. Really I've only faced PeteB's Space Wolf ally and for my first BW9 game I only go and get three of the blighters! I'd actually seen Lord Halfpenny's blogpost [or Dave as I called him ;) ] about the army list only the other day but I never expected to face it so lets see what happened.

Psychic Powers
Winged Tyrant WTervigon Plain TrZoanthrope
DominionDominionDominion
CatalystCatalystParoxysmWarp Blast
Paroxysm
Onslaught

The low down:
  • Purge the alien but based on the Blog Wars 9 rules - Unit Points for killed units, half points for half killed units which then translates to VPs - Hammer and Anvil
  • Warlord Trait - Night Fighting turn 1
  • Night fighting first turn, lost deployment, went second and failed to steal the initiative. 
This is one of the first times I've ever deployed so far back in my own deployment zone but I figured the Knights are pretty fast anyway so I shouldn't make it any eaiser for them to get to grips with me. I actually looked over at Liam who was next to me and saw he'd set up his Tau Skyshield in the same fashion so I was actually relieved I'd made the decision.


I filled the ruins behind the Knights with Genestealers. I had no idea whether this was a mistake as essentially I'd put them all within easy range of the knights but I figured it was better to have them all there so I could overwhelm at least one of them.


If their presence forced him to split his force I might have a chance and it might help that only two would be headed for the rest of my army.


With nightfighting and going to ground I could get a 2+ save which might keep them alive and if they weren't targetted I could try and see if they could chase down the knights. It was a gamble but the alternative was to do nothing and deploy in my own area.


However my DZ was already quite full and 25 Genestealer would be tough to keep protected so forward deployment was the plan. Oh and the Tyrannocyte had the Rippers in, just because.


Turn 1 and the Deathwing Knights turn up amd are keen to target the Tyrannofex, but I think his 2+ save was too handy.


On my other flank the remaining Deathwing teleported. I don't think anyone was wounded thanks to cover saves from nightfighting and Shrouding from the Venomthrope tucked behind one of the Capillary Tower supports of the Skyshield.


My Genestealer bait was ignored and all three Knights marched up the battlefield, they did shoot back at the Genestealers casuing a unnit to go to ground but with the ability to target differnt units the Special Character Knight reducde the dilapidated Bastion to rubble, it's original intention was to fling it at the Tyranids but unfortuanetly you can't do that with building.


I was lucky enough to cast Catalyst and passed on the FnP to tht T-fex, unfortunately his Fleshborer Hives, and 15 Termagants Fleshborers that were spawned out by the Tervigon, were not sufficient to damage the Deathwing, thanks to their increased shield wall toughness


However, on the other flank my shooting was far more productive on the plain Deathwing and allowing me to Assault leaving just one terminator left, but not enough for First Strike.


I hadn't assaulted with the T-fex as I was reluctant to sacrifice the 20 snapshots I'd get on overwatch. Of course that meant he would be charging with +1 attacks but it was justified as one of the knights died in the charge.


The Imperial K nights continued to advance, with just two broods of Stealers leaving the safety of the ruins to chase them down.


One of the knights charged my Hormagaunts who were kept in check by the Flyrant who'd taken a wound from a Knights anit-aircraft autocannons [or a perils of the warp, I forget which]


The Knight wiped out all but three of the Hormagaunts so remained locked in combat.


I managed to kill off the last


I managed to kill the last Deathwing but it was still a long way to the knights could I make it?


The Tyrannocyte turned up and I decided to try and use it and the Rippers as a speed bump, see if I could delay the knights a little. So far my combined Shrouding and Skyshield were keeping most of my army whole so the longer I could delay the inevitable the better.


The Flyrant swooped off behind the Knights to get some rear or side shots, taking a hull point or two. Meanwhile one of the Carnifex managed to make it's charge, ironically the one further way and Deathleaper also got in to assault the Knight sadly he didn't get any Rends in despite doing quite well in his attack. I'm not sure if the Carnifex faired any better, I like to think it may have got a Hull Point in. However, the only damage in return was Deathleaper got smeared across the battlefield [another 230pts lost].


With the T-fex still an issue the Deathwing Knights powered up their Maces to Smite the offending beast


The T-fex couldn't get past the Terminators shields and even with the spawned Termagants piling in their claws and teeth couldn't penettrate the Knights armour.


The Smite dealt four wounds to the enraged beast but the was still an opportunity to visit some damage to the Dark Angels.


This is either some saving throws [not good] or more likely my to Wound rolls from the Carnifex on the Knight :( not even a single glance, let alone a pen. Meanwhile the Rippers tried to stop the other Knight!





The Carnifex paid the price for it's ineptitude in combat.


And unsurprisingly so did the Rippers allowing the Knight to consolidate towards my Tyrannocyte.


With the character Knight sweeping the top front layer of gaunts things were not looking good on the Skyshield.


The Deathwing Knights continued to hammer on the Tyrannofex, without losing a model, they were just too tough for the gaunts to help out. He was on already 4 wounds


and took another 6 that I had to save against and the law of probability was borne out with me failing one of them to leave him on his last wound.


For the purpose of spectacle I allowed the Knight to climb atop the Skyshield, so long as the Tervigon would be allowed to get in on the action, which is actually what Dave was after so my cunning ruse worked, no wait...


Unfortunately I was unable to add to the two Hull Points it had already taken but luckily I only took 2 wounds in return.


The other Carnifex sought revenge for the death of it's sibling but clearly wasn't up to the challenge. I'm not sure if it did any damage in the process but I know he'd taken two Hull Points damage by the end of the game so was 1pt off scoring half his blood points.


I managed to get the Genestealers into combat with the other knight with one of the broods just short of reaching the assault. He was already on 3 wounds so all I needed was 3 rending hits off 11 Genestealers [mathhammer - 33 attacks, 22 hits - 3.something rends] and I managed to beat the odds with 5!


Ah, erm yeah! The Knight blew up big time wiping out the three broods totalling 14 models that had been assaulting it.


So it was a good job the other brood had failed their charge as nothing survived the Knight explosion and as I only secured the second half of the Knights points [the first half already in the bag] I probably came off worse as I lost 210pts of Genestealer to do it!


This was clearly the Tervigon, I'm assuming saving throws as 2s would be bad but I'm not sure how these two dice rolls would have affected his current wound status


But it clearly was fatal, and the Knight picked it's ruined corpse up and hurled it at the Venomthrope causing a wound to add insult to injury.


And then all the Termagants popped!


The Deathwing Knights [Paroxysmed by -1] continued the fight, once again completely unharmed by my Termagants.


They managed to put four wounds on the Tfex and it could no longer sustain the impacts from their maces.


The Tfex died and the game came to an end.


I've never won a kill points battle at Blog Wars, I've never faced more than 1 Knight and I don't think I've ever killed one so although the final score was 600pts to 1335, with both of usgetting Linebreaker I honestly fel quite pleased with the result. Clearly I do have options against Knights and I think I was unlucky in places not to have done more damage to them so safe in the knowledge my gaming buddies are never likely to field more than two I'm hopeful for the future. I'm also once again impressed by the Dark Angel Knights, it took them far too long to kill the Tfex but that was because of Paroxysm keeping their hits low, but they're certainly durable in combat and can do damage when needed.

So a great game despite the loss, now on to game 2

12 comments:

  1. Absolutely beautiful armies and photos Dave! That was some unlucky rolls with the dice..the carnifex should have evicerated that knight with D3 str 9 hammer of wraths and all those str 10 ap2 attacks!

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    1. Thanks Greg, yes it felt a bit unlucky, especially when the Flyrant was doing so much damage on his own with AP- Deathspitters. I have to say he managed to redeem himself after some pretty lacklustre games recently.

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  2. What a Battle!! This game was my favourite of the day, and really could have gone either way. It definitley makes the game even better when you are facing such a stunning army..
    Hears to the next battle!!

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    1. Thanks, I certainly had more time to have fun with our game. All three games I had were a blast I just didn't feel as rushed, clearly you having only 14 models helped but despite the huge loses I had a great time with it, my new Knight is in the post!

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  3. Guys looking at this battle report it looks like you had a great time playing it. I think I may have spotted a couple of rules mistakes you might have made, though I don't think they were game critical. Personally one of the reasons I like tournaments is that being away from your established player base you can learn something new in the rules that your own steady group missed, but at the same time I can also understand people don't always appreciate other people picking holes in things they've done.

    If you'd like to know where I think you played it slightly wrong (and bearing in mind i'm going off rulebook, your individual codex could hold something that allows for the exceptions I have spotted) do let me know and I will be happy to discuss it, otherwise I shall hold my tongue. After all, the important thing is you both clearly enjoyed the game, as I've now read both your battle reports and you both seem to list this as a favourite! :-)

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    1. Happy to hear your thoughts Ginge, if I suffered a disadvantage or gained an advantage [highly unlikely, you did see the final score!] through misunderstanding I always say it was vagaries of the warp, if its good enough for GW it's good enough for me. However, it could also be my Swiss cheese memory recollection coupled with my poor reporting skills. So I'm more than happy for comment, we only get better that way. :)

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    2. Well looking at where you deployed your genestealers, infiltrating them behind the knights... They look a bit close. Rules for infiltrate state that if out of line of sight (which fair point, they are) they still have to be more than 12" away from the enemy. Unless you have some specific tyranid thing that overrules this, though my friend plays nids and if they could deploy THAT close to me I'm sure he would not complain about genestealers as much as he does...

      On the flip side, the knights firing back at the genestealers as they advanced up the table... did he turn around to do this as you make it sound like he shot backwards from the battle report? Knights follow the basic rules for walkers, so are assumed to have a 45 degree horizontal and vertical firing arc from the mounting point of the gun, along the barrel. So he can only really fire forwards, and I'm assuming he'd be keeping that front armour and ion shield towards your firebase.

      And the third and final thing I noticed was that he assaulted a dilapidated building. Now if it is dilapidated then it can switch sides during the course of the battle but at the start of the game belongs to neither force, and the rules for assault say you pick an ENEMY unit to assault. On the flip side, the idea of him hurling a building at you as he advances does sound kinda cool... :-P

      Anyway, for what it's worth your battle report inspired me to double check a few things in the rulebook before I put my oar in, and I am pleased to say I learned something too. I did not know that super heavy walkers and gargantuan creatures cannot fire overwatch. I have happily informed the knight player at my local club, who overwatched me with his 12 shot assault cannon thingy the last game we played... lucky he did no damage or I'd have a bone to pick with him :-P

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    3. Thanks for the points, the deployment is alright. As you guessed there is a formation called the Maufactorum Genestealer Brood, that allows it. It's 5 units of 5 Genestealers and you can upgrade them but not add any more models to the brood. It allows you to deploy within 6" of your opponent so long as the Genestealers are in Ruins or an unoccupied building. It's pretty cool because it forces your opponent to deal with the threat on their doorstep and may dictate how they set up instead of what they wanted to do.

      Of course the downside is with only 5 models it's ripe for losing first blood but if you go to ground and it's Night Fighting, [which I go for every time] then a 2+ cover save might just waste a lot of fire in their direction for very few casualties. And a Swooping Flyrant can bring them out of 'going to ground' instantly when it gets in range ;) They also get Hit & Run as a rule!

      The other problem is you can't assault until turn 2, because you infiltrated, but by that time you should have moved other units up so more immediate bigger threats become the target, they forget about the Genestealer and when they do come out their targets are usually engaged already so you can get into combat without suffering Overwatch and they can do the business. And flamers really are their Kryptonite. Oh and they're not Objective Secured unlike their non formation counterparts :(

      There's another formation of Broodlord Hunting pack that does a similar job, but arrives from reserve within 6" of your opponent in Ruins/buildings and it's a bigger brood with a Broodlord but the reserve delivery isn't as good. It's in the Leviathan supplement, well worth looking at for more nid options.

      I think you're right about the shooting arc, but I'll have to confirm that. I thought it odd at the time but no biggy, not sure too many died. The Ion shield shifts every shooting phase so it did change to the back when the Flyrant got behind.

      As for Overwatch, Dave took the Baronial Court formation which does indeed allow the 'vassals' the two red Paladin's to overwatch so long as they're within 12" of the Warden, the green one. They also get a 3+ invul on the front arc! So it's a pretty tasty formation.

      As for the Bastion, we just did that for show. I think I did mention to Dave he wouldn't be able attack it, but I'd already got excited at the spectacle about to happen before I took a second thought about the rule, so we went ahead anyway, y'know to Forge a Narrative ;) . Then we found out he couldn't chuck it so we were both a bit deflated but I was probably let of lightly as A Bastion hurling through the sky could have been deadly!

      Didn't know about Gargs not having Overwatch, but then I don't have any...

      Thanks for all the points, really appreciate it. Tell your friend to try the Manufactorum Brood, it's cool but there are clearly downsides to it that make it not overpowered. It's one of my favorite ways to play them, although the Spawn of Cryptus formation is good too.

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    4. Thanks I'll let him know about that formation. He does have a lot of genestealers from previous editions, just doesn't play them any more.

      That is a tough formation for the knights, they get all the cool toys! Though the vassels get to overwatch, surely they've still got battle cannons? So could only overwatch with the heavy stubbers at best?

      Yeah the bastion I thought the one you were most likely to be fully aware of the rule but ignoring it for the spectacle. Yes, it would have been epic. Yes, I imagine it would have bloody hurt! :P Though actually if it had been allowed and was treated like a vehicle it would have been a str6 large blast I believe, so not THAT bad...

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  4. Sounds like a great game.
    Deathwing knights are awesome, never leave the Rock without them. Highly recommended for your Dark Angels.

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    1. Well I did accidentally get two sprues in my Dark Angels expansion instead of 1...

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    2. 10 knights then sir. Two units.

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