#BattleReport - 1,500pts Imperial Knights v Astra Militarum

Afternoon #warmongers and #warhammercommunity we've been playing #new40k Following our last game we felt upping the points and a bigger board might add the dimensions so far we'd felt lacking. Another 500pts got me a Crusader, which I felt needed the Rapid Fire Battle Cannon for the extra range I' didn't have with my previous games against Ben's Orks. However, he switched to his Astra Militarum, and tanks. Don;t worry he gave me fair warning and I knew a Thermal Cannon would serve me well against them, but I figured so would a Battle Cannon, plus, the range... we rolled The Four Pillars we took secondary objectives but *SPOILERS* there wasn't much point keeping track of score as it became apparent very quickly only one of us was scoring points 😔.

Deployment can feel like quite the disadvantage for Knights. As soon as you put your first model down you're committed. I very quickly surmised that I'd put the Lancer on the wrong side. Although it was a shorter distance to potential targets it was through cover, whereas the Questoris Knights had great field of fire but would be slower to get to Ben's backfield. 

But, I look at it now and realise I can't second guess this,because at the time there are few models on the board, so I've no idea where he's going to put stuff. It's easy to say they're in the wrong place, when you know what they're up against and where they're deployed. And, of course, you don't know who is getting first turn. Ben won the roll off and only moved the Leman Russ Demolisher.

As shooting started I used the Kolossi Eternal stratagem - My Preceptor blended his Ion Shield with the Crusader and Armiger so they all had 4+ invulnerable saves. Now he already had the Ion Bulwark of a 4+ but this would help the other 2 weather the incoming storm. Unfortunately, everything was just thrown at the Preceptor who did blow up but I used a re-roll to prevent any damage to the other Knights. Then with the Preceptor gone, the blended Ion shield fell and the two remaining Knights had to rely on their own shields. I think the Crusader took 2 wounds and the Armiger 4, the Lancer remained untouched.

My turn and the Warglaive focussed its attention on the Demolisher, with the shooting and assault combined it was able to bring it down to just 2 wounds, which felt like I was getting somewhere, although I'd hoped to destroy it. Similarly, I felt I made some conservative target priorities with the Crusader - it's Stubbers targeted one infantry squad doing enough damage to force a morale check, it's Ironstorm Missiles another squad for the same reason and Endless Fury and the Battle Cannon laid into Pask's Leman Russ to destroy him, but I think I only halved it's wounds or it was on 4 when the dust settled. The Lancer failed to charge the Bullgryns.

Ben moved his Techpriests up - one repaired Pask so he was back up to top tier. The other fixed the Demolisher and it also Jury Rigged itself for another repair so it was back to 6 wounds. Now in middle tier it didn't take much to destroy the Warglaive.

And with the smaller knight out of the way the weight of fire went into the Crusader, who had 15 wounds stripped off it!

Luckily I had the Machine Spirit Resurgent stratagem to be at top tier wounds on the Crusader. Once again putting all the big guns into Pask to try to kill him but I don't think I did. I then charged the Demolisher. I still couldn't stomp it to pieces. Meanwhile, the Lancer strode over the Bullgryns into the trees and assaulted them from behind, as well as the infantry squad. I'd wanted to take out the Leman Russ, but it was going to be a 10" charge, so went safe. I perfectly split the attacks to wipe out the Bullgryns and by the end there were only 3 Guardsmen left in the squad.

I think I missed pics of Ben's turn here, all the tanks offl-oaded into the Lancer and killed it, with no CPs to give me any rerolls. The Demolisher, still in combat with the Crusader, fired point blank and stripped another 4 wounds off it so it was now left on 5 wounds. In my turn I used my command phase CP to use the Machine Spirit Resurgent stratagem again. I think I fell back 1", finally wiping out Pask with all my 'heavy' guns

Then I multi-charged the Demolisher and the other Leman Russ. I allocated 8 Titanic Feet attacks to the Demolisher with just 6 wounds to make and all I managed was 3 wounds! I think the other 4 stomps went on the other Leman Russ and didn't damage it! And there was me originally thinking I should have had the 8 on the 'fresh' tank and 4 on the damaged but I was adamant it had to go and still 8 attacks couldn't cut the mustard!

With only 5 wounds left it was easy pickings to bring the knight low for my 5th successive defeat.

So, what have we learned? Was this a better game? It felt like it, it felt like I was making intelligent decisions but losing first turn and losing the Preceptor, which had arguably the best ranged anti-tank weapon [and 2nd best melee weapon] in the lance, was a big blow. But when you think how long it took me to kill anything, in fact I only killed Pask, the 3 Bullgryns and a smattering of Guardsmen and yet I was deluded into thinking I was doing OK. It says a lot that whenever I tried to score Ben's VPs in the Command Phase he never even bothered to write them down. He knew the inevitable - that his gunline would persevere while my Knights would not.

Which still leaves us unsatisfied. No doubt we will try again, but I thin k with such a wealth of other options - Blood Bowl, Deathwatch Overkill, Blackstone Fortress, Middle Earth Battle Companies and our much paused MERP campaign I don't feel too bad if we just patiently hope 10th edition. Or, perhaps in the shorter term the next Knight or Tyranid codex will solve some of the shortcomings of 9th we're both experiencing. This isn't just me, Ben has won 5 times now and clearly there's no joy in it for him because it's just point and shoot. We're going to try Deathwatch Overkill next.

#BattleReport - 1,000pts Imperial Knights v Orks

Afternoon #warmongers and #warhammercommunity we've been playing #new40k in our last game we'd rolled Divide and Conquer we didn't even bother to keep track of score for game two - we were just playing fast[er]. The only variable we changed was I went first.

I moved up to secure an objective, my shooting was relatively successful - killing the Wartrike at least. I'm not sure how I'd split my fire but I know I debated it ad nauseum. The Preceptor's Las Impulosr is relatively short range so I think it may have taken out the Trike. There is the Capacitor Charge Stratagem that makes it Heavy 6 instead of Heavy D6  and he would have been within 18".

Unfortunately one vehicle down just wasn't enough with Ben calling the Waaaaaargh! This time with Ghazgkhull leading the charge. The Lancer was down to 19 wounds going into combat

And then suffered another 14 taking it to just 5.

I'm not entirely sure what this roll is for - it could be Ghazgkhull's damage roll on my Preceptor, or it could have been a saving throw but as he can only take 4 wounds it wouldn't be hugely significant him passing most of them. 

Regardless, the Knight fell and I was just left with the Lancer and the Warglaive.

The Lancer did not last long and in an act of charity Ben suggested we finish with Ghazgkhull versus the Warglaive, based on the premise he had in fact suffered 4 wounds already. In which case the Warglaive had to cause 4 wounds in shooting and 4 in combat.

Which he just managed to do, even with Ben re-rolling his invulnerable save. Ghazgkhull was dead but the rest of the Orks butchered the Knight for its audacity killing their leader.

Tabled again. So much for my cockiness. We had quite the discussion afterwards about the game and the experience we've had of 9th edition so far. If you haven't gathered, it isn't particularly positive. We can't seem to pin down yet, what is making it feel so one dimensional. Is it the size of the games, the armies we've got, our inexperience [both of the rules and tactics], the discrepancy in age of Codex, the terrain setup or even the board size. It's a topic for a post on its own, when we've played a couple more games. We're planning a bigger game - 1,500pts in the hope that might change the dynamic a bit. We'll use the bigger table to do so, but I'm not sure how that will change anything as the 'no-man's' land is still the same distance. 

But we're going to persevere, but it says something that with 4 wins under his belt Ben does not feel happy about the outcome. We've had fun and plenty of exclamations and drama but when that is purely on the outcome of a lucky or unlucky dice roll why do we need the figures or terrain? We need to feel like tactical choices have had a bearing on the game. So far it's just me being swamped, but maybe that's how Orks play?

#BattleReport - 1,000pts Imperial Knights v Orks

Afternoon #warmongers and #warhammercommunity we've been playing #new40k [is that hashtag still valid?]. Ben and I decided to go for a bigger game this time - 1,000pts. However, an Incursion battle is still the small board, which looked very odd them's the rules. I brought some terrain and it may look like there is too much, in fact a lot of it is utterly redundant aside from it making the board difficult to traverse, which was the point. I thought it'd be interesting to have us forced into choke points, neutralising some of the advantages of my Knights and also the speed of the Orks - would it work that way though? We'd rolled Divide and Conquer as a mission and we spent ages choosing our Secondaries but I won't go into detail as we quickly abandoned any effort to keep track of score.

I had a Preceptor, my Lancer and a Warglaive. I thought I was really clever with my Heirlooms and traits. The Preceptor had Armour of the Sainted Ion for a 2+ save and Ion Bulwark for a 4+ Invulnerable save. The Lancer had Knight Seneschal for +1 Attack [giving him 6!] and Mark of the Omnissiah for minimum 2 Wounds back each turn thanks to the Sacristan Pledge. I was feeling pretty cocky and elected to go second.

Ben had got rid of the Boyz, had more units of Bikers, two more vehicles and a Wartrike and Ghazgkhull was behind the Sanctum Imperialis on the right.

Turn 1 and Ben called the Waaaaaargh! with Trikes and Bikes surging forward.

Everything fired at the Lancer, it even took 4 wounds off thanks to Shoota fire!

By the time the Trike got into combat the Lancer was down to 8 wounds from 26. The Bikes also multi-charged the Preceptor a muddy little combat may have taken place and I may have interrupted [I really should write these the day after].

As the dust settled the Lancer had fallen, despite rotating Ion Shields for a 3++ save in combat. Alongside, the Preceptor had taken 4 wounds. Only the boss of the Bikers remained of the Ork push.

But he couldn't survive, either by attack from the Knight or morale.

With the Orks gone the second wave of the green tide were free to push forward. Again, more shooting from the Scrapjet and other Speed Freeks whittled away my wounds and left the Knightsw even more vulnerable. Despite prioritising mostly defensive Relics and traits they just couldn't shrug off the weight of fire.

Even the Goffs incredibly bad shooting was eased by 6's causing two hits. Ghazgkhull himself has crazy rules with his guns that mean anything that fails to hit and wound can be re-rolled. Add to that he can take no more than 4 wounds per phase and there was no way i could kill him in a turn as I don't have any Psykers to dish out wounds in the Psychic phase - there's a point Imperial Knights need a Psychic unit - like a court mage. The Adeptus Titanicus have Psi-Titans why not Knights?

So, there we go, tabled again. At turn 2 it was 25:6 in Ben's favour but being dead it was all over for me anyway. It was relatively quick for a 1,000pt game so we had time to set it up again. I did have a Preceptor and 4 Armiger list instead, but the only variable we changed in game 2 would be I went first...

#BattleReport - 500pts Imperial Knights v Orks

Afternoon #warmongers and #warhammercommunity it's been a long time since I've done a 40k battle report - February 2019 in fact at the Last chance Open and now here's two! Having had the Tyranids trounced I had brought some Armigers, I was able to fit two Helverin and a Warglaive list. There wasn't really time for a second battle, all I wanted to do was see what the two Helverins would have done against the bikes, so started to roll the dice, without the figures on the board... Next minute we had this!

 

We weren't playing any objectives, it was just kill everything. By this stage there was just the Nob biker left, my Warlord Helverin was down to 1 wound thanks to the Scrapjet and bikers and falling back, which left the last biker exposed and ultimately doomed. The Scrapjet fell to my Thermal Lance but the Warglaive was down to 5 wounds too.

The Weirdboy and Boyz set their sights on the Warglaive and undamaged Helverin.

Charging in, the Warglaive couldn't stand the weight of numbers and was cut down/smited before he got a chance to swing his chain cleaver. I think he did blow up though, wounding the Weirdboy and killing some of the Boyz. The Helverin was less successful. He did amazingly well with saving throws but just could not kill the Boyz because he doesn't have a dedicated melee weapon - it's why I prefer the Warglaive.

My last ditch was to charge the 1 wound Helverin into the fray but again he couldn't do very much thanks to his wounded state. I couldn't fall back to shoot as the Orks would catch me up and I didn't have the combat weapons to tip the balance

In return the Orks didn't have the strength and AP to damage me, but they had weight of numbers and we slowly chipped away at each other, with the Warlord Helverin falling to Smite.

The Weirdboy somehow got removed and all that was left was 5 Boyz and the Helverin on 5 wounds. I possibly should have the advantage for Toughness and saves but I think it was 15 attacks versus my 4...

and weight of numbers will out in the end. A somewhat disappointing outcome ultimately. I had hoped he'd survive and be rewarded for his tenacity but not to be.

Subsequently I've had a bit more of a look at the Knight rules and thanks to them being spread over 3 books now there are additional stratagems that would have helped, although we weren't keeping too close a track on CPs. But I was also able to recoup a wound per turn, which might have made a minor difference. It's a learning experience though and failures like these force you to debrief and learn more about your army so you can do better next time. All in I think it took an hour to play this out and we'll look to have a 1,000pts next time, which I have two Knight armies I want to try out 😉 See if we can get two games in again.

#BattleReport - 500pts Tyranids v Orks

Afternoon #warmongers and #warhammercommunity it's been a long time since I've done a 40k battle report - February 2019 in fact at the Last chance Open. Nearly 3 years since my last game! And, there's been a new edition, so this is my cherry being well and truly popped. 🍒 Ben suggested we have a game, so we played the Only War mission to get a feel for the rules with just 500pts. There were 4 objectives [spore mines]:

• one in the trees in my deployment zone on the right, 
• one in the 'trees' in the centre of the board
• one beside the Imperial statue, bottom middle
• one in the crater field, top left

Ben had a Weirdboy, Megatrakk Scrapjet, Ork bikers and 20 Ork Boyz.

I had a Tyranid Prime and 3 Tyranid Warriors [all with Deathspitter and Scything Talons, because I misplaced my kitbashed Prime Lashwhip and Bonesword], 10 Termagants with Fleshborers, 3 Hive Guard and a Carnifex with 2 twin Devourers with Brainleech Worms, Enhanced Senses and Spore Cysts.

Ben went first, moving his Scrapjet up and then getting Da Jump to move the bikers across the board to face my Termagants. He fired all over the place but the combination of the Light Cover, Spore Cysts and Leviathan's Synaptic Imperative [6+ save to ignore wounds, which worked a few times in the first turn] meant nothing died. Only one Hive Guard took 2 wounds and he failed the bikers charge into the Termagants.

In response I moved forward and shot everything at the bikers. As the bio-ammunition did it's job there were just two bikers and their boss left. The Carnifex couldn't bundle into the charge, leaving the Termagants on their own. But I used the Caustic Blood stratagem in hopes their sacrifice might bring about the bikers doom.

As the Termagants got squished one more bike would succumb thanks to Morale. We'd later find out that their Choppas should have been -1AP making the Termagants even easier to kill but they'd clearly forgotten to sharpen them this game.

The Boyz moved out from the barricades, able to conga line between both backfield objectives. The Weirdboy, holding one objective and casting Smite at the nearest target, killing the last two Termagants and releasing the bikes from combat. The Scrapjet drifted round the melee aiming for the Carnifex. I was relieved the Carnifex was taking the heat off the Hive Guard but all the shooting took 6 wounds off the Carnifex.

The Scrapjet multi-charged the Carnifex and Warriors and would be backed up by the bikers. The Carnifex was down to 2 wounds, so it didn't take much to put paid to the monster and the Warriors, though I think they did damage the Scrapjet a bit with overwatch and attacks.

Having wiped out my centre the Bikes consolidated into the Hive Guard - this gave me free attacks but would leave them locked in combat, rather than able to shoot. Even with the Tyranid Prime's Swarm Leader rule still in place on the Hive Guard [re-roll hits] they couldn't do more than a wound or two. In my turn they attacked again but it wasn't enough, with the Prime entering the combat I came to regret not finding the Lash Whip and Bonesword Prime as his Scything Talons failed to penetrate their t-shirt armour.

The Scrapjet barrelled in to what was left of my army and they were ground into past beneath its tracks and drill. Tabled and many VP's to Ben. I hadn't even scored one thanks to his Bikes being ObSec.

Ben felt it had been very one-sided but I think initially it looked like I would have taken out all the bikes with my first round of shooting. I had held off shooting twice with the Hive Guard as it was our first game and I didn't really want to remove the entire unit in the first turn. We're learning and deleting a unit straight away is no fun and wouldn't help encourage us to continue playing. Ben thought I should have done it, so for research purposes I rolled a second round of shooting to see what would have happened to the three remaining bikes in that first turn and indeed they would have all died.

So, what did we learn - that two Ork Bikers are still pretty lethal - don't let them get close [somehow]. Find your Lashwip Bonesword Tyranid Prime - Scything Talons are pointless [does that mean I have to rethink all my Warriors?]. And, always shoot twice with Hive Guard 😉

Dark Angels - Deathwing Land Raider Redeemer - TO DONE! [White Pics]

Afternoon #warmongers and #warhammercommunity I've been #paintingwarhammer on my Dark Angels Deathwing Land Raider Redeemer. Here's all the white background pics.

A different prospect altogether when it's not on the red background. All those subtleties in colour just jump out.

The heat bloom on the Flamestorm Cannon isn't great, or perhaps the blessed verdigris is bit clumsy but I'm happy with  most of my other choices.

The weatherign powder in particular adds just enough variety at the the bottom of the tank.

It may not come with a Red Planet BASE! but that dusting of rust orange gives the illusion of it.

I carry on with this I'll end up wanting to revisit all my models and give them dirty greaves...

Green doors may well have added a little more variety on the model and yet more continuity with the rest of the army but I will live with my choices.

Alongside the fact the gunshields are back-to-front. I did also consider the Indomitus decal sheet has a white checkerboard strip that I thought would be cool on the shields, if I could source a second one but thought it might be too fussy,

The Hunter Killer Missile appear all wobbly looking now. I was sure I'd glued it much straighter than that. It got a bit of a bang at some point which led me to believe that was the result, but it still feels pretty solid so I don't know why it's off-kilter.

 

The lenses still look OK. I didn't Tamiya Clear them in the end. The drop of Vernidas varnish to add a proper lense feel works but I think it works better with the Tamiya Clear process. 

I had to retain all that highlighting though, it would have been lost otherwise.

The green lenses look OK too, they aren't as well executed as the original red ones but the Tamiya Clear Green X-25 makes them look a little more realistic than the un-Clear orange and red.

I may well add some purity seals on these front wings as when the Land Raider earns the right to bear them.

A quick splash of Army Painter Soft Tone on the Mechanicum banner decal toned down the white enough to help it belend in.

Again, Camera360 isn't necessarily giving me the quality of imagers I hoped for, so I tried some with my native camera app.

I don't know if that improves anything for you as the viewer.

I think the depth of field doesn't help, the phone does have a dedicated macro camera but most everyone said zooming in with the main camera gives better results.

There we have it. Back to Greenwing and Ravenwing next.