What's this? An actual battle report not conducted over Skype?
On the weekend, General Kasfunatu made a surprise deepstrike into Stylus Towers. Naturally, I was setting up the battle table before he could even cross the threshold.
For speed and convenience, we grabbed the exact same lists we used last time I hosted a Traitor Legions clash. I let Kasfunatu (represented here in bold type) choose his side, but it was all a piece of Tzeentchian trickery on my part: I was either going to field the side that tabled me last time, or play an army that would have learned from all its weaknesses. Victory would be mine!
As it transpired, nether of us got to choose. Stylus Junior was involved in the set-up of the game, and he's taken a shine to the Helbrute, and so he insisted I played him.
Yes, I was going to say that is wasn't much of a "choice"! Although I would have liked the Helldrake, I was happy with the pyschic heavy Tzeentch list given my love of magic in Fantasy.
And so I find myself at the mercy of Kraken's list-building. The only amendment I made was to not spend the additional CP to get a redundant Relic. It was bad enough that there was no room in the Rhinos for my characters.
This left Kasfunatu with my Thousand Sons force, which was great as I knew where all the cheat codes were.
(although since the taking of this photograph, the Mutalith has acquired a Vortex on his back. Hope that doesn't tip the scales...)
And been painted; that extra reluctance to shoot a painted mini is bound to help me.
We went with Cleanse and Capture (three tactical objectives per turn, all the usual rules). I spread out across the field (not trying to remember what Kraken had done, honest). Cultists hunkered on one objective; Heldrake ready to race upfield; Plasma-Rhino with Dark Apostle; Melta-Rhino with chainsword-Marines; Sorcerer cowering behind them; bolter-Marines in the ruins on another objective; and Helbrute on the flank.
Kasfunatu spends three precious command points putting the Tzaangors and the Tzaangor Shaman into the webway.
I'd enjoyed dropping big units plus their associated hero during the recent SWoffboot and the Tzaangors seemed like a good option. Additionally, with their horn, the deepstriking 9" away was less of a hinderance as they'd only need an 8 on the dice.
After that, there's not much left: Rubrics and Exalted Sorcerer on one flank; Rubrics in the centre; Exalted Disc Sorcerer, Spawn and Mutalith on the other flank.
It made sense to me to put the Mutalith and Spawn together, and I though the warlord would be a good boon to assist. With all the power on one flank the other marines were dropped on objectives, and the second sorceror assisting the far flank.
Being able to drop two units with one stratagem means that Kasfunatu actually finishes first, and gets the bonus to going first. Of course, rolling a 6 for that helps too.
I'd drawn a lucky objective, defending one of the spots that I was safely ensconced upon.
The only real action comes when the Rubrics on the left flank target my poor Cultists. Already softened up with Smite, they loose a handful more until the surviving four are looking at a -6 Morale check with Ld 6. I roll a four, which would cause the whole unit to scarper. After much internal debate, I decide to spend a command point and re-roll it. I have a chance to deny First Blood here, and having a sole Cultist as a cheeky objective grabber could be useful.
So I go ahead and roll a 5.
It's about halfway through the next turn when I realise two things: 1) Black Legion Cultists benefit from the +1 Ld boost, and so my original roll would have been enough to pass. 2) I am dumber than a bag of hammers.
In the same turn we would have retconned, but things had shaken up a lot by that point. Hammertime remains.
But who cares about Cultists! In my turn, I move aggressively: the Heldrake soars forward right into the squad of Rubrics (I've seen that done somewhere before), while the Rhinos charge up the midfield and the Helbrute squares off against the Mutalith.
The Heldrake burns the Rubrics into dusty ash, and then charges in to eat the remainder. Only the Aspiring Sorcerer survives (or course, he passes his Morale check), which is a bugger, as I had an objective card for killing a Psyker, and it would have shifted him off the objected that both Kasfunatu and I want to defend.
Sadly, that's the most luck I have this round: the Helbrute's multi-melta misses, and all my small-arms fire can do nothing more than plink off one wound from a Spawn.
Webway time! Kasfunatu advances the Spawn and Mutalith towards the Heldrake, but the real action is when he unloads all twenty Tzaangor and their Shaman minder in the far corner, eyeing up my Heldrake. It's a ballsy move, because if they fail their charge, they would be stranded out on the edge of the battlefield (I'd forgotten he still has a Dark Matter Crystal to get him out of jail).
The Scarab Occult Terminators also make their appearance, into the space in my backline formerly occupied by the Helbrute.
Psychic powers abound (it's tough to keep track of them when you're facing Thousand Sons - you mostly just keep your head down and pray it ends quickly), but the most significant one was the Exalted Sorcerer getting off a mega-Smite at the Heldrake, then knocking six mortal wounds off him. He also heals a wound on the Chaos Spawn, so they're back to full strength.
In the shooting phase, the Mutalith continues to buff the Spawn (in Tzeentchian style, Kasfunatu is letting Fate decide all his powers), then the Terminators open up on the Chaos Space Marines, gunning down all of them bar the Champion and two heavy weapons guys. A Helfyre missile pips off two wounds from the Helbrute for good measure.
In the charge phase, everything makes it in - yes, even that massive blob of Tzaangor against my Heldrake (who can't overwatch because he's still busy trying to eat that Aspiring Sorcerer). With buffs from the Tzaangor Shaman and Exalted Sorcerer, plus Veterans of the Long War to aid them, the wee blue birdmen tear their bigger cousin from the sky before Kasfunatu has even finished making his wound rolls.
With a final act of spite, I do manage to crash and burn my Heldrake. the Tzaangors won't notice the missing guy, but it does remove the last Rubric model, so at least I can score that point!
Desperately trying to take the initiative, I pay Command Points to interrupt with my Helbrute. I put all my attacks into the Spawn (who are still crazy-buffed from the Mutalth's powers), but only manage to score a couple of hits (with a re-roll, I'm consuming Command Points here). Even worse, because his Helbrute fists inflict a flat 3 damage, both hits get soaked on the four-wound Spawn (so that one healed wound proved significant).
Thank you - it was Stylus's sporting suggestion in the previous round to suggest I used the heal.
The poor Helbrute is torn to pieces by the gribbly tag-team, and that's the end of Kasfunatu's turn.
Time for the fightback! I unload all my close-combat Marines (with meltas) from the Rhino and start moving towards the Spawn. The Dark Apostle follows close behind to shout instructions at them. The Chaos Lord swoops down from on high, polishing up his Murder Sword, glaring at the Thousand Sons warlord and wondering what the hell's been going on in his absence.
If I don't mention my Psychic phase, it's because I'm not sure my Sorcerer ever managed to cast anything. Although Kasfunatu did have an objective to Deny the Witch, so at least my incompetence was keeping him from scoring even more.
In the shooting phase, both melta-guns somehow manage to miss the ruddy great Mutalith in front of them. At least the Rhino shows them how it's done, and meltas off five wounds. Other small-arms fire gets rid of another Spawn, while the autocannon plinks off a Scarab Terminator (I do like an autocannon).
Away to the charge phase! The Chaos Lord revs his jump-pack, then discovers he's forgotten to refuel the promethium! I fail the charge, even with a re-roll and all of a sudden, my murderous lord is looking quite exposed on the flank.
I do make the charge into the Spawn and Mutalith. The Champion decides to take on the Spawn by himself (a brave decision, also I had miscounted how many wounds he needed to chew through) while everyone else hacks at the Mutalith, aided by Veterans of the Long War.
Very kind on the "miscounted". Both Stylus and I were responsible for our own wound markers, and both knew what our own meant.. but I count wounds taken not woulds left... so Stylus thought he needed 1 when he needed 3.
The Spawn is handily slain, and I do take another half-dozen wounds from the Mutalith. This would feel like progress, only the damn beast regenerates wounds, and keeps getting healed from the Rubric on the backline. In return, his tentacled maw gobbles up a few more marines.
In Kasfunatu's turn, the triumphant Tzaangors manages to cross half the field, aided by Warptime and a good charge distance to swarm all over my stranded Chaos Lord. They manage to daisy-chain back to the Tzaangor Shaman for their re-rolls, but are out of re-roll distance of the Exalted Sorcerer ... except these relic-hunting beastmen can re-roll all hits when going against characters.
Already weakened by Smite, my poor Lord doens't stand a chance, and goes down to a flurry of feathers, his precious Murder Sword destined to be a trophy of the Silver Tower.
Elsewhere, the Scarab Terminators gun down the last of the bolter marines, and the Mutalith continues to chomp down, leaving only three marines left to flail away at him.
Maybe the Rhinos can save me? I order a death-charge of the vehicles: one into the Tzaangor, the other into the Mutalith. The Dark Apostle and Sorcerer also charge into the fray, although for some reason I pulled the three combat marines out. I don't know what I was thinking - there was an objective I could claim in the next turn, but making it that far seemed absurdly optimistic.
Sure enough, the best efforts of my vehicles and characters couldn't make a dent. Both characters get chewed up, and the vehicles taken down a couple of pegs too.
The Shaman had buffed the birds to a state that the Rhino could not hit them and just drove around waiting to be blown up.
Kasfunatu wraps things up in his fourth turn. The Rhino standing in the way of the Tzaangors gets Smited to pieces, and with the addition of the Scarab Occult Terminators, the other Rhino and its two supporting characters get quickly mashed. The three Chaos Marines who tried to sneak the objective get gunned down in short order, and serve them right, the cowards.
We call the game before the badly-damaged Rhino goes pop for a tabling, but it's been a massacre. While I scored on measly Victory Point for killing a Pysker (my only kill of the game), Kasfunatu's been racking up a hockey score of objectives and kill points. Chalk this one up to the Sons of Propsero.
On the weekend, General Kasfunatu made a surprise deepstrike into Stylus Towers. Naturally, I was setting up the battle table before he could even cross the threshold.
For speed and convenience, we grabbed the exact same lists we used last time I hosted a Traitor Legions clash. I let Kasfunatu (represented here in bold type) choose his side, but it was all a piece of Tzeentchian trickery on my part: I was either going to field the side that tabled me last time, or play an army that would have learned from all its weaknesses. Victory would be mine!
The Unkindest Cut - Black Legion
As it transpired, nether of us got to choose. Stylus Junior was involved in the set-up of the game, and he's taken a shine to the Helbrute, and so he insisted I played him.
Yes, I was going to say that is wasn't much of a "choice"! Although I would have liked the Helldrake, I was happy with the pyschic heavy Tzeentch list given my love of magic in Fantasy.
And so I find myself at the mercy of Kraken's list-building. The only amendment I made was to not spend the additional CP to get a redundant Relic. It was bad enough that there was no room in the Rhinos for my characters.
- Chaos Lord with Jump Pack (HQ)
Plasma pistol, Power sword
Relic: The Murder Sword - Dark Apostle (HQ)
Bolt pistol, Power maul - Sorcerer (HQ)
Bolter, Force sword
Psychic power: Death Hex, Prescience - 10 x Chaos Space Marines (Troops)
Aspiring Champion: Plasma pistol & Power maul; Bolt pistols, Chainswords, 2 x Melta Guns. - 10 x Chaos Space Marines (Troops)
Aspiring Champion: Plasma pistol & Power maul; Bolt pistols, Boltguns, Heavy bolter, Autocannon. - 10 x Chaos Cultists (Troops)
Autoguns, Heavy Stubber - Helbrute (Elite)
Helbrute Fist, Heavy Flamer, Multi-melta - Chaos Rhino (Transport)
Combi-bolter, Combi-melta, Havoc launcher - Chaos Rhino (Transport)
Combi-bolter, Combi-plasma, Havoc launcher - Heldrake (Flyer)
Baleflamer, Heldrake claws
Court of Miracles - Thousand Sons
This left Kasfunatu with my Thousand Sons force, which was great as I knew where all the cheat codes were.
(although since the taking of this photograph, the Mutalith has acquired a Vortex on his back. Hope that doesn't tip the scales...)
And been painted; that extra reluctance to shoot a painted mini is bound to help me.
- Exalted Sorcerer on Disc of Tzeentch (HQ)
Force Stave, Inferno Bolt Pistol
Warlord Trait: Otherworldly Prescience
Relic: Dark Matter Crystal
Psychic powers: Warptime, Diabolic Strength - Exalted Sorcerer (HQ)
Force Stave, Inferno Bolt Pistol
Psychic powers: Prescience, Death Hex - 5 x Rubric Marines (Troops)
Force stave, Inferno Bolt Pistol, 4 x Inferno Boltguns
Psychic powers: Temporal Manipulation - 5 x Rubric Marines (Troops)
Force stave, Inferno Bolt Pistol, 4 x Inferno Boltguns
Psychic powers: Weaver of Fates - 19 x Tzaangors (Troops)
Brayhorn, Tzaangor Blades - 5 x Scarab Occult Terminators (Elite)
Force stave, 4 x Inferno Combi-bolters, 4 x Power Swords, Soulreaper Cannon, Hellfyre Missile Rack
Psychic powers: Tzeentch’s Firestorm - Tzaangor Shaman (Elite)
Force Stave
Psychic powers: Glamour of Tzeentch - 3 Chaos Spawn (Fast)
- Mutalith Vortex Beast (Heavy)
Battlefield and Deployment
We went with Cleanse and Capture (three tactical objectives per turn, all the usual rules). I spread out across the field (not trying to remember what Kraken had done, honest). Cultists hunkered on one objective; Heldrake ready to race upfield; Plasma-Rhino with Dark Apostle; Melta-Rhino with chainsword-Marines; Sorcerer cowering behind them; bolter-Marines in the ruins on another objective; and Helbrute on the flank.
Kasfunatu spends three precious command points putting the Tzaangors and the Tzaangor Shaman into the webway.
I'd enjoyed dropping big units plus their associated hero during the recent SWoffboot and the Tzaangors seemed like a good option. Additionally, with their horn, the deepstriking 9" away was less of a hinderance as they'd only need an 8 on the dice.
After that, there's not much left: Rubrics and Exalted Sorcerer on one flank; Rubrics in the centre; Exalted Disc Sorcerer, Spawn and Mutalith on the other flank.
It made sense to me to put the Mutalith and Spawn together, and I though the warlord would be a good boon to assist. With all the power on one flank the other marines were dropped on objectives, and the second sorceror assisting the far flank.
Being able to drop two units with one stratagem means that Kasfunatu actually finishes first, and gets the bonus to going first. Of course, rolling a 6 for that helps too.
The Game
It's a fairly quite start, as the webway units can't properly deepstrike until turn two. The two Rubrics hold fast on their objectives while the Mutalith and Spawn surge forward. Various psychic powers are thrown around, and the Mutalith opens the shooting phase with a pair of buffs that make the Spawn into some deadly combat units.I'd drawn a lucky objective, defending one of the spots that I was safely ensconced upon.
The only real action comes when the Rubrics on the left flank target my poor Cultists. Already softened up with Smite, they loose a handful more until the surviving four are looking at a -6 Morale check with Ld 6. I roll a four, which would cause the whole unit to scarper. After much internal debate, I decide to spend a command point and re-roll it. I have a chance to deny First Blood here, and having a sole Cultist as a cheeky objective grabber could be useful.
So I go ahead and roll a 5.
It's about halfway through the next turn when I realise two things: 1) Black Legion Cultists benefit from the +1 Ld boost, and so my original roll would have been enough to pass. 2) I am dumber than a bag of hammers.
In the same turn we would have retconned, but things had shaken up a lot by that point. Hammertime remains.
But who cares about Cultists! In my turn, I move aggressively: the Heldrake soars forward right into the squad of Rubrics (I've seen that done somewhere before), while the Rhinos charge up the midfield and the Helbrute squares off against the Mutalith.
The Heldrake burns the Rubrics into dusty ash, and then charges in to eat the remainder. Only the Aspiring Sorcerer survives (or course, he passes his Morale check), which is a bugger, as I had an objective card for killing a Psyker, and it would have shifted him off the objected that both Kasfunatu and I want to defend.
Sadly, that's the most luck I have this round: the Helbrute's multi-melta misses, and all my small-arms fire can do nothing more than plink off one wound from a Spawn.
Webway time! Kasfunatu advances the Spawn and Mutalith towards the Heldrake, but the real action is when he unloads all twenty Tzaangor and their Shaman minder in the far corner, eyeing up my Heldrake. It's a ballsy move, because if they fail their charge, they would be stranded out on the edge of the battlefield (I'd forgotten he still has a Dark Matter Crystal to get him out of jail).
The Scarab Occult Terminators also make their appearance, into the space in my backline formerly occupied by the Helbrute.
Psychic powers abound (it's tough to keep track of them when you're facing Thousand Sons - you mostly just keep your head down and pray it ends quickly), but the most significant one was the Exalted Sorcerer getting off a mega-Smite at the Heldrake, then knocking six mortal wounds off him. He also heals a wound on the Chaos Spawn, so they're back to full strength.
In the shooting phase, the Mutalith continues to buff the Spawn (in Tzeentchian style, Kasfunatu is letting Fate decide all his powers), then the Terminators open up on the Chaos Space Marines, gunning down all of them bar the Champion and two heavy weapons guys. A Helfyre missile pips off two wounds from the Helbrute for good measure.
In the charge phase, everything makes it in - yes, even that massive blob of Tzaangor against my Heldrake (who can't overwatch because he's still busy trying to eat that Aspiring Sorcerer). With buffs from the Tzaangor Shaman and Exalted Sorcerer, plus Veterans of the Long War to aid them, the wee blue birdmen tear their bigger cousin from the sky before Kasfunatu has even finished making his wound rolls.
With a final act of spite, I do manage to crash and burn my Heldrake. the Tzaangors won't notice the missing guy, but it does remove the last Rubric model, so at least I can score that point!
Desperately trying to take the initiative, I pay Command Points to interrupt with my Helbrute. I put all my attacks into the Spawn (who are still crazy-buffed from the Mutalth's powers), but only manage to score a couple of hits (with a re-roll, I'm consuming Command Points here). Even worse, because his Helbrute fists inflict a flat 3 damage, both hits get soaked on the four-wound Spawn (so that one healed wound proved significant).
Thank you - it was Stylus's sporting suggestion in the previous round to suggest I used the heal.
The poor Helbrute is torn to pieces by the gribbly tag-team, and that's the end of Kasfunatu's turn.
Time for the fightback! I unload all my close-combat Marines (with meltas) from the Rhino and start moving towards the Spawn. The Dark Apostle follows close behind to shout instructions at them. The Chaos Lord swoops down from on high, polishing up his Murder Sword, glaring at the Thousand Sons warlord and wondering what the hell's been going on in his absence.
If I don't mention my Psychic phase, it's because I'm not sure my Sorcerer ever managed to cast anything. Although Kasfunatu did have an objective to Deny the Witch, so at least my incompetence was keeping him from scoring even more.
In the shooting phase, both melta-guns somehow manage to miss the ruddy great Mutalith in front of them. At least the Rhino shows them how it's done, and meltas off five wounds. Other small-arms fire gets rid of another Spawn, while the autocannon plinks off a Scarab Terminator (I do like an autocannon).
Away to the charge phase! The Chaos Lord revs his jump-pack, then discovers he's forgotten to refuel the promethium! I fail the charge, even with a re-roll and all of a sudden, my murderous lord is looking quite exposed on the flank.
I do make the charge into the Spawn and Mutalith. The Champion decides to take on the Spawn by himself (a brave decision, also I had miscounted how many wounds he needed to chew through) while everyone else hacks at the Mutalith, aided by Veterans of the Long War.
Very kind on the "miscounted". Both Stylus and I were responsible for our own wound markers, and both knew what our own meant.. but I count wounds taken not woulds left... so Stylus thought he needed 1 when he needed 3.
The Spawn is handily slain, and I do take another half-dozen wounds from the Mutalith. This would feel like progress, only the damn beast regenerates wounds, and keeps getting healed from the Rubric on the backline. In return, his tentacled maw gobbles up a few more marines.
 |
| "Stop telling us what do to, Dark Apostle. You don't even have three colours!" |
Already weakened by Smite, my poor Lord doens't stand a chance, and goes down to a flurry of feathers, his precious Murder Sword destined to be a trophy of the Silver Tower.
Elsewhere, the Scarab Terminators gun down the last of the bolter marines, and the Mutalith continues to chomp down, leaving only three marines left to flail away at him.
Maybe the Rhinos can save me? I order a death-charge of the vehicles: one into the Tzaangor, the other into the Mutalith. The Dark Apostle and Sorcerer also charge into the fray, although for some reason I pulled the three combat marines out. I don't know what I was thinking - there was an objective I could claim in the next turn, but making it that far seemed absurdly optimistic.
Sure enough, the best efforts of my vehicles and characters couldn't make a dent. Both characters get chewed up, and the vehicles taken down a couple of pegs too.
The Shaman had buffed the birds to a state that the Rhino could not hit them and just drove around waiting to be blown up.
Kasfunatu wraps things up in his fourth turn. The Rhino standing in the way of the Tzaangors gets Smited to pieces, and with the addition of the Scarab Occult Terminators, the other Rhino and its two supporting characters get quickly mashed. The three Chaos Marines who tried to sneak the objective get gunned down in short order, and serve them right, the cowards.
We call the game before the badly-damaged Rhino goes pop for a tabling, but it's been a massacre. While I scored on measly Victory Point for killing a Pysker (my only kill of the game), Kasfunatu's been racking up a hockey score of objectives and kill points. Chalk this one up to the Sons of Propsero.
Result: Thousand Sons Victory (11 VPs to 1)
Locker Room of Terror
Hmmm. So I play Thousand Sons against Black Legion, and I get tabled. I play the identical Black Legion list against Thousand Sons ... and I get tabled. If there was only some common factor in these defeats, but I'm not seeing it.
In truth, I got a schooling in a very literal sense. Kasfunatu demonstrated some very effective ways to use my Thousand Sons that I hadn't considered (or, had considered, but never remembered to do). Putting the mass of Tzaangor into the webway is the most obvious one. I'd considered 20 x 32mm bases a bit of a footprint to get anywhere useful on the field, but it would be a crowded battlefield where they couldn't fit somewhere. And if you want to relocate them, there's always the Dark Matter Crystal. One thing I wouldn't do is spend the extra 2CPs to put the Shaman in with them. The speed of the Disc riders should be enough to fly them into buffing range.
You are probably right. Set him up centre table and, even if does not make it straight away, will be there for the second round.
Also, putting Tzaangor into deepstrike also takes away the option to pepper them in turn 1 (something that Kraken showed me last time). Despite T4 and a 5++ save, they're not great at absorbing small-arms fire, Much better to have your opponent waste shots on the Rubricae - as I did.
The use of the Scarab Terminators was also spot-on. I always think (despite how I actually play them) that they're better at bullying weaker units. Dropping them into the backfield where they could gun down my marines and keep out of immediate danger was the right move.
I also didn't play the Black Legion terribly well (not having a plan doesn't help with that). I think a robust castle approach, screen by the Rhinos, might have helped me more - with nowhere to deepstrike in, the Thousand Sons may have struggled against my guns.
So my run of defeats continues, leaving me primed with most valuable learning. Just As Intended.
In truth, I got a schooling in a very literal sense. Kasfunatu demonstrated some very effective ways to use my Thousand Sons that I hadn't considered (or, had considered, but never remembered to do). Putting the mass of Tzaangor into the webway is the most obvious one. I'd considered 20 x 32mm bases a bit of a footprint to get anywhere useful on the field, but it would be a crowded battlefield where they couldn't fit somewhere. And if you want to relocate them, there's always the Dark Matter Crystal. One thing I wouldn't do is spend the extra 2CPs to put the Shaman in with them. The speed of the Disc riders should be enough to fly them into buffing range.
You are probably right. Set him up centre table and, even if does not make it straight away, will be there for the second round.
Also, putting Tzaangor into deepstrike also takes away the option to pepper them in turn 1 (something that Kraken showed me last time). Despite T4 and a 5++ save, they're not great at absorbing small-arms fire, Much better to have your opponent waste shots on the Rubricae - as I did.
The use of the Scarab Terminators was also spot-on. I always think (despite how I actually play them) that they're better at bullying weaker units. Dropping them into the backfield where they could gun down my marines and keep out of immediate danger was the right move.
I also didn't play the Black Legion terribly well (not having a plan doesn't help with that). I think a robust castle approach, screen by the Rhinos, might have helped me more - with nowhere to deepstrike in, the Thousand Sons may have struggled against my guns.
So my run of defeats continues, leaving me primed with most valuable learning. Just As Intended.
Writing this up, I realise that the Tzaangor Sorcerer couldn't have been put into the Webway, as he's not an infantry unit. It's a moot point, since he had the mobility to get where he needed anyway, so the worst was that it wasted 2CPs for Kas.
ReplyDeleteBut I remain convinced that it would have changed EVERYTHING.
I have identified the common element in these losses.
ReplyDeleteIt's the terrain.
Of course! Every battle I've lost has been on a table that included terrain!
Delete