Battle Record - WH40K - Imperial Knights Vs Tyranids 01/04/26

Afternoon #Warhammer Community I've been #PlayingWarhammer with my son again! He's been home in the lead up to Easter and he wanted a game to get more experience in the lead up to his efforts to start a Warhammer Alliance club at his school.

I decided he could go Tyranids and I would be Imperial Knights 500pts each but based on the Combat Patrol missions. As I had 3 Armigers [2 Warglaives and a Helverin], I tried to beef his patrol with a Tervigon with Crushing Claws, 10 Termagants, 3 Warriors [2 with Deathspitters and a Heavy Venom Cannon], a Screamer Killer and a Carnifex with Deathspitters and Crushing Claws.

As per usual they went Invasion Fleet to give him Lethal Hits on Vehicles. 

 

Now I had no idea if this match-up was fair. Points wise the same, but the Combat Patrol warbands are usually about 400-440pts and Imperial Knights only get 2 Armigers so it concerned me a bit that I had 3.

Anyway, we rolled Scorched Earth for the missions and the 4 Ripper Swarms were the objectives to hold/raze.

Tyler got first turn and pushed forward, with his Tervigon skulking in the ruin top left. I think his shooting put a wound or two on one of the Warglaives.

My turn and I moved to engage. The Helverin blasted the Termagants, halving their numbers. While the Warglaive on the right melted the Screamer Killer in one round of shooting being in Melta range for both the gun and the Thermal Lance was just too much.

Having respawned the 5 dead Termagants in the brood, the Tervigon surged from behind the ruins in retaliation for the lost Screamer Killer.

And smashed the Warglaive to pieces with its Crushing Claws - fond memories of the old Warp Speed on a CC tervigon came flooding back.

Meanwhile the Carnidex, having an adrenal surge [Lethals Hits on 5+] crashed into the back of the other Warglaive and promptly stroked it's back rather than do any damage with its Crushing Claws.

Missing the opportunity the Warglaive sliced its remaining 2 wounds with ease and moved round to take on the Termagants, halving the brood once again. I think by the end of turn 3 we were both on 10 VPs each fro holding an objective each on turns 2 and 3. 

But the Tervigon was emboldened and headed for my home objective and the Warglaive.

 It's 'chicken feet' were no match.

With Lethal Hits auto-wounding.

No saves made and then the damage 3x D6+1 = 18 damage.

The Helverin was wrecked, with no explosion, and the objective secured.

My last Warglaive was able to wipe out the Teragmants, just, and tried to recapture the objective [if it survived Tyler's next turn. Meanwhile the Warriors razed their objective for 10VPs and the Tervigon scored 5.

Then the Tervigon and Warriors swarmed the Warglaive, taking the objective back.

But lost 2 Warriors for their audacity.

The Tervigon continued it's murderous killing spree and wiped the last Imperial Knight off the table securing the entire board. 

I think the final score was something like 35-10, but it was the probably the most enjoyable game of 40k I've played in 10th edition so far. Nothing seemed outrageous. It was a learning experience so although Tyler was shocked at the early demise of his Screamer Killer it didn't spoil the game. He remarked on the nature of spending hours painting a model only for it to be vaporised in one turn - totally understanding the 'new model syndrome'.

But that Tervigon was a beast and total MVP. I absolutely love seeing this model be so effective again. it might have been moreso with Scything Talons - more hits for it and the Carnifex might have capitalised on their Lethal hits. Although, without the higher AP they might not have got through the armour... Anyway, great game. Maybe next time it'll be 11th edition...

Battle Record - Adeptus Titanicus 26/03/26

Afternoon and after a couple of weeks where I couldn't attend Otty's shed I'm back! And we're starting a new game of Adeptus Titanicus - we're masochists! 🤣

Liam decided to field 3 Warlords, whereas I wanted more titanic feet on the ground with 2 Warhounds, 2 Reavers and a Warlord with Quake Cannon and Conversion Beam Extirpator. It did mean that I ended up with a lot of weapons suitable for stripping shields, but only a few that could deliver the killing blow

Knowing how Liam usually plays [at the back of the board] I was overjoyed to get the Hold the Line mission that meant I get more points depending on how close he is to my board edge. He and Ben had pulled table quarters, so he was also at a disadvantage as he could only score 3 out of 4. I decided to fire a Concealment Barrage which forced Liam to move a bit so his titans could still shoot. 

But it turned out their chaos 'blessed' titans were a little more grumpy than expected and one decided to just charge through the city in the middle of the board. Giving it lots of cover, to my annoyance. 

Otty and I sent the Warhounds forward, pushing the reactor, which promptly went into the orange, which caused a shutdown of its void shields. With no protection left the Warlord pounded it until it fell silent. In return we sent a tracer cloud toward the advancing Warlord, but any benefit for shooting through the cover was lost as Quake Cannon fire spun it out of the tracer cloud. At least it's approach had been stalled.

Further shots slammed into it I think taking out most of its weapons and putting a few structure points on the body and head. I think a lot of our other Titans were doing OK, but the unnecessary loss of that Warhound was really frustrating. 

We'd held onto first player for the three turns we managed to play. Liam and and Ben's advance had put them in a  good position. 

But if we could take out one or both of their Warlords that had pushed forward and contest each of the quarters with our own Titans we may well tip the scales in our favour.

I think we were starting to grasp things a lot more this time around. The game was much quicker and easier to follow. However, coming to the conclusion that Void Shield Relays are massively OP. I mean we both had them but Liam and Ben barely took a void sheild of our Warlord. Every time they suggested targeting it was followed by 'what's the point?'. We may well house rule them out of use in future. The game feels a little unproductive with them in it and getting all the void shields down makes it more tactical to avoid this and the game quicker if you don't.

We should finish it off next week.

Battle Report - Adeptus Titanicus 05/03/26

Afternoon and we're back again playing Adeptus Titanicus in Otty's shed. This is week/turn 4 over a 5 or 6 week period! 🤣

When we left it our Reaver in front of the Warlord was in the red on its reactor. The Plasma Cannon Warhound was leaking plasma and at risk but a good couple of repair orders might just save our bacon. What actually happened is that everything that needed a repair order failed their command checks. Both Liam and I rolling 2s. Our appalling dice sticking with us.

We managed to immobilise the Eldar Reaper/Reaver, thanks to some Thermal Mines - a strategic asset we actually got to use in the game! The damaged Warhound taking even more damage having been charged, but then ducking out of the combat and fire arc. It's squadron mate moving to the centre.

With so much critical damage the Warhound was vulnerable to even Knight small weapons fire and blew up, damaging the Reaper and barely scratching its twin. As the game went on I think we played this catastrophic damage incorrectly but the rules are so difficult to follow. We spent so much time going backward and forwards. There's literally a section in the advanced rules that refers you to the basic rules, which then immediately refers you back to the advanced rules. It is so frustrating.

So our bad luck was further compounded by Otty and Ben's good luck. This roll was four 6's and a 1, but whichever weapon fired had re-roll 1's and wouldn't you know it another 6! In balance there was very little damage to whatever it hit but what can you do? At about 10:30 in the evening both Liam and I were utterly deflated. It felt like it was midnight and although I expected to suffer early on when we restarted the fact we'd weathered that storm only to get pummelled for still standing was sapping our will to carry on.

Then the immobilised Reaper managed to clip the back of our Reaver with Shuriken Cannon [Gatling Cannon] fire. It was just enough to tear through the leaking reactor. A catastrophic failure that exploded in a 9" fireball. Having been berated by Liam from the very beginning for the poor position of the VSG I knew the first thing I had to check. Lo and behold the VSG was vaporised in the explosion. I literally couldn't see for laughing. Luckily there were two paramedics in the room because my chest hurt too.

But it didn't end there. The chain reaction took out an Eldar Questoris knight, damaged the Reaver and Warhound, which blew up too. 

This explosion then blew up the Reaver [thanks to this insane roll] whilst also damaging the two Revenants, destroying one.

As the nuclear fireball dissipated all that was left was a Lancer Knight and a revenant that has managed to secure its lost crew for 20 Victory points. Plus the multiple VPs for the engine kills. I think they were on 42 or 44 points.

To go from such a low, lose so many engines but in such a rewarding why was exhilarating. We were so close, convinced we'd got 37 VPs ourself so all we needed to do was either destroy the revenant with the crew. The Immobilised Reaper, or the Phantom to win the game. We chose the Reaper as it was already damaged and just needed some leg shots. But the Volcano Cannons added 4 plasma, taking it into the red, but it was going to be the last turn anyway and ultimately the Reaper survived. I suspected it would end with an anti-climax after such a roller coaster. 

Then we looked again at the scores and it turns out I'd totally overestimated the Eldar units we'd destroyed in the meltdowns and we barely got over 20VPs from the damage caused. So we were far from being in contention.

What had been a painful experience became hilarious and exciting. 4 weeks of gaming, struggling with the rules but ultimately having fun. We need to find a better way to play the game though as it's far too difficult and awkward to play. We all want to give it a rest but we know that that will just mean it's as difficult to play again down the line.

We'll see what happens, hard, hard work, but thankfully rewarding at the end. The dice G.O.D.s may not have favoured us, but they certainly put on a show when it most mattered.

Battle Record - Adeptus Titanicus 19/02/26

Afternoon and we're finally back playing Adeptus Titanicus in Otty's shed. Ben was working so it was just Otty, Liam and myself to continue the game. As it had been a while since we saw Liam we spent a good portion of the evening talking about our trip to Warhammer World

So, when we got to the actual game we only managed one additional turn! It wasn't just the chatting, we were just very, very slow. We'd left the game quite concerned as our Warlord was almost out of void shields and the Reaver was in the orange on its plasma reactor. I did then discover the reactor table is only a D6 test at this stage. We did survive. But we pushed the reactor on the Warhounds and the Warhound with the Plasma Blastgun went up 2 spots, which given it had gone maximal last turn put it in the red! Next turn will not be good.

But Otty could not roll to save his life! He'd been using our bronze dice and then remembered to switch to his Eldar ones only for them to desert him.

And again! Not to mention he pushed the reactors and ended up doing more damage to his units than we did in the shooting.

He was able to take down and Atrapos and Questoris Knight but his own knights have almost no structure points left and his Revenant [Warhounds] had their void shields dropped and taking damage.

The Phantom titan had awakened its machine spirit, moving forward and inch and then turning to meet the oncoming Warhounds. They weathered the storm thanks to the poor dice rolls but I think one will have to go into Damage Control Orders next turn. We were still in a precarious position but I think we'd done far more damage to the Eldar than we had any right to. 

Sadly I won't be able to make it next week. so I'll have to get feedback from them, when they play. But it may only be a turn I miss out on anyway. 😂

Anyway, I have got a few extra Titan weapons - Conversion Beam Extirpators and Quake Cannons to paint now, courtesy of Liam. 😎