Dragonslayer: Black Legion vs Salamanders

Into a virtual world!

Nothing against Skype, but after what, six glorious years of Skype Night battles, maybe it's time to try a new tack? Behold, the glory of Tabletop Simulator! 

I, Kraken, will be putting an army through its paces in an attempt to see how 40K handles when both players can actually see the models without webcam pixellation.

I, Stylus, will be uploading myself into the Matrix and putting my finely-honed ZX Spectrum gaming skills to the test.

Does 01010011100100111011101 sound right?
It's Tabletop Simulator Battle Night!

Salamandastrom - Space Marine, Salamanders

• Captain in Terminator Armour (HQ)
  Storm Shield, Thunder Hammer
  Warlord Trait: The Imperium's Sword
  Relic: The Salamander's Mantle
• Chaplain (HQ)
  Grav-pistol, Crozius arcanum
• Lieutenant (HQ)
  Master-crafted boltgun, Power sword
• Company Ancient (Elite)
  Power maul
• 5 x Scout Squad (Troops)
  Bolt pistol, Boltgun
• 5 x Scout Squad (Troops)
  Camo cloaks, Sniper Rifle
• 10 x Tactical Squad (Troops)
  Bolt pistol, Boltgun, Grav-cannon and grav-amp, Grav-gun, Power sword (Sergeant)
• Dreadnought (Elite)
  Twin heavy bolter, Dreadnought combat weapon, Storm bolter
• 5 x Terminator Assault Squad (Elite)
  Lightning claws

Points: 996 | Battalion + Vanguard: 9 CPs  | Salamander Chapter

As this is a slightly experimental battle, I'm keeping things simple. Space Marines equate with simplicity in my mind, the vanilla faction of 40k. Perhaps that's daft, maybe I should be sticking with a faction I know better? Well, time will tell. 

There's two detachments here, one with cheap troops for board control, and then a harder-hitting elite group of assault terminators to do the heavy lifting. Hopefully I can throw enough bolter rounds out from the battalion to thin out the enemy, because Terminators are expensive! So I had to skimp a bit on heavy weapons and such. Grav guns look decent against power armoured foes, though, and a Dreadnought is a good all-rounder against most things. 

The troops will hang back and shoot, although I can stick the scouts out in front to stop Stylus deep striking too easily. And the heroes will provide close combat backup for the killing blow on whatever I can't shoot apart!

For this unexciting but capable force, Salamanders provides the perfect army trait, giving me a ton of rerolls in shooting and combat. Seriously, a free reroll to hit and wound per squad per phase? That's... that's... I don't know how many command points that comes to over a battle! 

Nobody Does!

The Congregation of Hate - Chaos Space Marine, Black Legion

• Dark Apostle (HQ)
  Combi-melta, Power maul
  Warlord Trait: First Among Traitors
  Relic: The Black Mace
• Sorcerer with Jump Pack (HQ)
  Combi-bolter, Force stave
  Psychic powers: Prescience, Warptime
• 20 x Chaos Cultists (Troops)
  Autopistol, Brutal Assault Weapon
• 10 x Chaos Cultists (Troops)
  Autoguns
• 9 x Chaos Space Marines (Troops)
  Bolt pistol, Chainsword, Icon of Vengeance, Flamer, Combi-flamer+Power maul (Champion)
• 3 x Chaos Bikers (Fast)
  Combi-bolters, Melta gun, Combi-melta (Champion)
• 5 x Raptors (Fast)
  Bolt pistol, Chainsword, 2 x Plasma gun, Combi-plasma+Power Fist (Champion)
• 3 x Obliterators (Heavy)
  Fleshmetal Guns
• Chaos Rhino (Transport)
  Combi-bolter

Points: 999 | Battalion: 8 CPs  | Black Legion

I almost got carried away with the idea that I could pick *anything* for my army but, like Kraken, decided to stick with something manageable.

I'm familiar enough Heretic Astartes, both rules and playstyle, not to get lost. Much of this army are current of future projects for the real-world legion. I've gone for a fast moving list: melee CSMs riding with the Apostle in the Rhino; melta-armed bikers for some fast dakka; Raptors, Obliterators and Jump-Sorcerer for deep-strike firepower, and a couple of Cultist blobs to take objectives and get shot.

Strike hard, strike fast, no mercy! It's the Cobra-Kai way.

"My team's winning, but ... do my knuckles smell weird?"

TTS - A Beginner's Guide

Tabletop Simulator, or TTS for short, is an online computer game that pretty much Ronseals its name. It attempts to provide a virtual tabletop, complete with physics, dice rolling sound effects and a button to flip the entire table. Which is handily situated in the middle of the taskbar, where you can click on it by mistake if you're clumsy. 

Originally, it was made for cards, dice, chess and Go. Tabletop game players being the enterprising sorts they are, there are tons of mods you can download for it, most of which probably fracture a number of copyright laws. Although a bit cumbersome, it's perfectly possible to get hold of beautifully crafted 40K battlefields, patch in some other mods for the army of your choice, tape on some rulebooks or datasheet cards, mix in a pair of realistic tape measures and then pray the whole edifice holds together as you abuse it with semi-competent mouse clicks. 

It's pretty cheap (especially if nice people like Kas buy a four-pack in a Steam Sale and donate one! Thanks, Kas!), and from previous experience I know it works well. Kas and I play Kingdom Death and X-Wing on it from time to time, and it usually works a lot better than trying to Skype those two. 

But will it hold out for 40K, or will Skype emerge triumphant from this titanic clash? This fight is also a reckoning for the system, and we'll hold forth on a verdict at the bottom.

Terrain and Deployment

Many and various are the terrains I could choose from. So a hearty shoutout to modder Kharn, who created this Urban 40K map mod that we used! A cheery little slice of Grimdark dystopia, some sort of hellish industrial complex, complete with a ton of tiny barrels to hide behind.

With the Objectives set up, we went straight to deployment, facing off across the length of the board with the Hammer and Anvil set up. To keep things as simple as possible, we're playing Cleanse and Capture, the least complicated Maelstrom of War battle. 

The first few drops are easy for me: Raptors, Obliterators and Jump-Pack Sorcerer into deepstrike (I was pushing the boundaries of 50% of my Power Level, but I just about managed it.

On the actual board, the autogun Cultists camped out on the building with Objective 1. The melee Cultists went on the right flank to face the Sniper Scouts. The Rhino (carrying my CSM squad and Apostle) went into the centre, accompanied by the Chaos Bikers.

And I was ready to go! My only tactical observation was that I wish I'd brought fewer Cultists, as they were a bugger to move around and I kept dropping them.

Black Legion deployment lines

For my part, I left the Scouts hanging out to dry in the middle of the field, broke the Tac squad into Combat groups and gave the heavy half a rooftop to shoot from, then protected the other half with characters. All the Terminators went into the warp, and the Dreadnought got ready to rip forward and bash tanks or bikes, depending on what got too close. 

Salamanders ready for action

Black Legion - Turn 1 

My first three objectives drawn were: Supremacy, Claim and Despoil (take an enemy objective) and Behind Enemy Lines. Unable to deepstrike this turn, the latter was not happening. But I already had one objective bagged, so if I could kill the Scouts (or just outnumber them, in the case of the Cultists), I could pull an early lead.

My autogun Cultists stayed put, my Chaos Bikers revved towards the Bolter Scouts. The Chaos Rhino advance up the parallel street, next to the Sniper Scouts, and popped smoke. 

The melee Cultists move to with charge range of the Scouts (I'm not optimistic about killing them, since there's not a lot of legroom on their position, but I need the charge to slingshot onto their objective)

I'm left with very little gun in the Shooting Phase. Luckily my Black Legion trait allows me to fire the Bikers' combi-bolters, so I open up on the Bolter Scouts, killing two. The melta guns, which would tear through their protective cover, naturally fail.

And so the turn ends: no objectives scored, and only two kills to my name. Come on you deepstrikers!

Objectives scored: none

Salamanders - Turn 1

Objectives Drawn: Overwhelming Firepower, No Prisoners, Behind Enemy Lines

Remarkably unscathed by this first turn, I feel ready to rumble. My objectives are mostly to wipe out enemy units, and seeing as I can't get into enemy territory that fast either, shooting some baddies to death seems like a game winning strategy. 

So my character-and-tac-marine blob strut forward, ready for some light shooting and then the hope of Terminator-backed charges later. The Dreadnought guns forward, backed by the guns of the other combat squad, and both scout squads cower in their respective towers. 

Shooting, sadly, is a total whiff. Between heavy bolters and a grav-cannon, I was hoping to pick off the bikers, but even with scout-tossed krak grenades, I only manage to pick one of them off. The other scouts, deprived of nice characters to snipe, make a nasty mess of the nearby cultists, shooting five and causing a few more to rout. 

But that's it - nothing destroyed, so no points for me. And I'm now rather worried about the next turn, as there's a lot of nasty men in black running straight at me. 

Objectives scored: none

Black Legion - Turn 2

I'm still on my first three objectives, but I'm more confident about getting them now and, thanks to Kraken's poor luck in the shooting phase, First Blood is still up for grabs.

I bundle everyone out of the Rhino and move them towards the small castle of Tactical Squad and Salamander characters. The melee Cultists ignore the Scout Snipers and just move to steal their objective from (literally) under their noses.

The Chaos Bikers thread the needle to move themselves into short melta range of the Dreadnought, while keeping the Scouts in rapid-fire range of their combi-bolters, and being close enough to claim Objective 4. The autogun Cultists settle down where they are and open their sandwiches.

Now it's drop time! The Raptors land behind the Dreadnought, for some plasma-gun backup. The Obliterators and Sorcerer land smack in the middle of the Salamander's backline. The Sorcerer fails to cast Prescience on the Obliterators, so consoles himself with a wee Smite on the Ancient.

The Cultist's autopistols begin the Shooting Phase and do absolutely nothing. The Chaos Space Marines split their fire: sending two flamers into the Tactical Squad, and everything else into the Scouts behind them (I don't want to whittle down the Tac Squad too much and increase my charge range). In the end, I get one Tactical and one Scout Marine for my efforts.

In the centre, I unleash both close-range meltas at the Dreadnought ... and miss. Oh dear. The combi-bolters perform a little better: hosing off two Scouts from cover, but their saves are hard to punch through with small-arms.

It's down the the Raptors to save the day. I employ the Black Legion stratagem Let The Galaxy Burn which lets me re-roll 1s - it's rapid-fire plasma overcharging time!

I score four hits (after rerolling a 1, thank you Abbadon) and they all go through. The Dreadnought is gone! And that's First Blood.

Inspired by such marksmanship, the autoguns of the Cultists plink off the last Bolter Scout, which means Objective 4 is now in the uncontested hands of the Bikers.

Sadly, the Obliterators can't keep up - they roll poorly with the Fleshmetal Guns, then whiff horribly in their shooting against the Grav-cannon squad, only felling one of them.

And now we fight! I think I need a re-roll, but nonetheless the Dark Apostle and Chaos Space Marines make it into combat, losing one in Overwatch. I play Veterans of the Long War and hack my way through the Tactical Squad - but though scoring hits and wounds is no problem, the damn Astartes armour is proof against my chainswords. I only get three Tactical Marines, with a wound on the Ancient and Lieutenant, taking one casualty back in return.

My Chaplain makes a heroic intervention, but he can't break the Black Legion armour. Even by hitting it with a skull on a stick. Oh, grimdark, you are daft, but I love you.

In the Morale Phase, I lose another Chaos Space Marine (which I now realise would have been impossible, given they would have used the Dark Apostle's leadership +1 Black Legion trait ... so maybe that one Traitor Astartes popped off to get a pint of milk).

Still, it's been a fantastic round for me! I claim all of my objectives (two of which were D3 points - I get 5 for the roll), plus First Blood. Now to weather the Salamanders' counterpunch.

Objectives scored: Supremacy (2), Claim and Despoil (3), Behind Enemy Lines, First Blood

Salamanders - Turn 2

No New Orders

Well, that's not so good. My characters are in trouble, I haven't scored anything, my Dreadnought was a total points bust and my objectives are a mixed bag. Reeling from ill fortune and a confused sense that I need to achieve things in a panic, I make some questionable choices. 

First is to throw the Assault Terminators into the enemy deployment zone. I know, I know! Terminators on cultists? It's massive overkill. But in fact, it's not really, it's a desperate measure. If they don't make it into combat, they'll almost certainly never catch the cultists, they're too slow. 

Next is throwing the Terminator Captain in behind the Obliterators. Charging them could be painful, their guns are a crapshoot, but a few lucky hits would see my Warlord dead. At least he's more likely to make it in, which is good, as if he doesn't he'll be weathering a hell of a lot of firepower. 

The rest of the round is pretty gloomy. Shooting again fails to impress - despite sniper and grav-cannon fire, I again fail to kill off the bikes. I scratch a Raptor with bolter fire, but that's it. 

Then close combat happens - sure enough, the damn Assault Terminators fail their charge, and even lose a wound to pitiful autogun fire! The Captain makes it, but I play safe and only charge the Sorcerer, who promptly snuffs it. This is good, I can overrun into the Obliterators, whose counterattacks patter off my storm shield. 

But that's the only good news. The Chaplain gets whacked by his evil Dark Apostle twin, the Tac Squad sergeant is down and the others are pretty battered. At least the Ancient's flag waving gets a few revenge hits in, but it's too little too late. 

A few victory points, at least! But I need some lucky draws next time to pull it back.

Objectives Scored: Behind Enemy Lines (1), No Prisoners (1)

Black Legion - Turn 3

All new objectives for this turn: No Prisoners, The Long War and The Warp is Your Ally. The first two involve killing things, which is simple enough (and The Long War is a cheeky bonus, since I get more points just for killing Imperium). The last card is an easy discard, as my Sorcerer currently resides on the end of a Thunder Hammer.

Lots of running around this turn: either towards the enemy or away from them. The autogun Cultists decide that, if the Assault Terminators want this building, they can have it, and promptly leg it in the opposite direction. Their melee brethren are more bold, and move into close charge range of the Sniper Scouts.

The Obliterators take their cue from the Cultists and run away from the Terminator Captain - no shooting from them. The Rhino trundles upfield in case I need a solid brick to be a linebreaker. The Raptors swoop towards the Grav-cannon squad, but ensuring the Captain is their closet target (I know the map doesn't show that) eager to demonstrate their superior shooting skills to the Obliterators.

In the Shooting Phase, the Raptor's plasma guns manage to get two wounds from the Terminator Captain, and everything else manages to survive whatever small-arms fire I have left.

In the Combat Phase, the remaining Salamanders prove tough nuts to crack. I think I eventually manage to chew through the Lieutenant and Ancient (the Black Mace is helping here), but the Chaplain still stands.

Er, no, he'd already died. And in fact the last two did get wiped out here, after which the remaining Dark Apostle and chums consolidated into a relatively intimidating gun line around the Terminator Captain. 

The Cultists do considerably worse: taking hits from Overwatch, getting pasted in combat with the Scouts (at least they dragged one down), then failing morale badly. Tide of Traitors would have come in handy except a) I have spent all my command points and b) I can't bear to move that many models again in TTS.

So I don't quite get the three units killed I'd need for the bonus, but I can still claim No Prisoners and The Long War (justice is served when I only get 1 point for it).

Objectives scored: No Prisoners, The Long War (1)

Salamanders - Turn 3

Objectives Drawn: Secure Objective 1, Domination

My new objectives are half delightful, half insulting. Domination? Claim all six objectives? Sod off, high command, you're having a laugh. Still, those cultists seem to have left objective one nicely empty in their rush for continued existence, so the Assault Termies trundle off to grab it. 

Still more whiffly grav-cannon shooting. Nothing dies to my fire despite all the rerolls, so it's left to the Terminator Captain to charge the Dark Apostle and gut him thoroughly, as the sniper scouts finish off the cultists. 

This leaves the game in an interesting position. I don't have much, but I could still swing it with either lucky draws or sheer persistance. In cover, Space Marines are very hard to shift, so as long as Stylus can't close conclusively, I might have a slim chance. But his fast assaulters are gearing for jumps, and my Terminator Captain has a lot of firepower pointing his way...

Objectives Scored: Secure Objective 1 (1), Slay the Warlord (1)

Black Legion - Turn 4

Having tossed The Warp Is Your Ally, I get three new objectives: Secure Objective 5, Defend Objective 1, Big Game Hunter.

The last one is an auto-reject, as the Dreadnought is already a smoking ruin. Objective 5 could be grabbed by the Rhino, if I can clear away the Scouts. Objective 1 is the one the Cultists had just abandoned, and it now in the custody of the Assault Terminators.

The Apostle may have fallen, but the Long War goes on! I move into shooting positions, since there's not a lot I fancy taking on in melee.

The Rhino moves to secure Objective 5, the lone Chaos Biker and remaining Chaos Marine surround the Terminator Captain. The Raptors jump behind the last Tactical Squad and the Cultists ... realise they left something behind at Objective 1.

This isn't necessarily a suicidal move for the Cultists: they have Objective Secured rule and the Terminators don't. So if just one Cultist is there at the end of the Salamanders' turn, I will have defended the objective (okay, so it's suicide for 90% of the squad, but there are two VPs to be grabbed).

In the Shooting Phase, the Raptors take out three of the Tactical Marines, leaving only the Grav-cannon. The combined forces of the Biker and Marines take off two more wounds from the Terminator Captain (the combi-melta misses again)

Best of all, the autogun Cultists unload on the Terminators and a lucky bullet finds it mark! Having already been wounded in Overwatch, this scores up a kill for the puny humans! They cheer wildly and hope that the remaining four Terminators have a sense of humour about it.

Objectives scored: Secure Objective 5

Salamanders - Turn 4

Famous jokers, Assault Terminators are not. Grimly sharpening their lightning claws, they pile angrily in, shrugging off the laughable overwatch fire. 

The last Tac marine flees the Raptors, there's nothing he can really do there. So it's down to the Terminator Captain, who massive outranks the foe in melee but has to run through the guns to get there. But I need the points, my new objectives are Psychological Warfare (cause morale tests) and Blood and Guts (kill in melee). 

That last one is worth extra points if I kill three squads, and it's a long shot, but I could do it! If the Terminator Captain can charge and murder all three Obliterators and the last Biker. Not impossible, but a tall order. 

Too tall, as it happens. The Biker Champion has failed to kill anything with his melta gun all day, and picks this damn moment to find the safety - I'm shot down before I can connect. 

The Assault Terminators start mincing cultists. And do predictably well, but not so well that fate cannot once more vomit on my cupcake - one somehow survives both melee and morale shock, and clings to both life and the ruddy objective! Gah!

Objectives scored: Linebreaker (1)

Black Legion Objectives scored: Defend Objective 1 (2), Linebreaker (1), Slay the Warlord (1)

Final Scores 14 : 5 - a win for the Black Legion!

Black Locker Room

Game analysis first: what a wild ride! I had a lot of fun with this army, even though some  units (Obliterators) really didn't perform, and others (Chaos Biker champion) waited until the last shot of the game to find his mark. Despite being brother legions, it's a very different playstyle to Thousand Sons and I'm enjoying it immensely.

The Raptors and Bikers both impressed me immensely - fast and shooty is a very dangerous trait. Wish I'd held my gun line back properly, I think I probably should have shot them apart rather more than I managed. 

Also, I'm really not familiar with the Marines. Perhaps I should have read their Strategems a bit more thoroughly before the match? There were missed opportunities in places, Death to the Traitors being a prime example I'd never heard of, and my list was rather poorly optimised and equally poorly placed. Hang back with your gunline, man! You're not Tyranids!

In terms of the game: I was very fortunate in the draw of my objectives and Kraken had some absolutely shocking dice rolls (even with the Salamanders ubiquitous re-rolls). I think the speed of my army helped me too: I was able to get units to support each other, or take objectives. Kraken's shooting troops and/or slow-moving deepstrikers were pretty much stuck where they were.

And let's not forget this hero...

Made it, Ma! Top of the World!

Tabletop Simulator assessment: it's very good. And with a game that requires a flat plane of few models (such as the aformentioned x-Wing), I think it would be second-to-none as a remote gaming system.

But for Warhammer 40k? No, not for me. The game was slow, even taking into account I was a complete novice (Kraken is much more proficient at this type of game and was helping me pick up and move all my pieces). We played a 1,000pt game for only four turns, and it took as long as a 1,500pt Skype game that went to full time. It's something of a chore to place and move all your pieces - no more accurately that guesstimating over Skype - and having to pick up the measuring stick and dice too just makes thing slower.

The dice in particular: I can scoop up and roll twenty D6s as second nature. But having to click-and-select, then roll (then pick up and re-roll the ones that went off the table), the dice in a virtual manner was painfully slow. Again, this works better in a game with only a few dice (like X-Wing).

Yep, I agree. I can mouse-and-board dice about with swift abandon, but it's still a bit hit and miss. Plus I still had to proxy models (the mods didn't have some of the newer stuff in it), and it feels deeply disloyal to my carefully painted minis to use computer sprites! Anything gained in terms of accuracy, as our Skype games are often pretty vague, is lost through mucking about with clipping figures or overall sludgy controls. It's more or less like playing drunk, only not as fun as that actually is. 

The biggest flaw was the obvious one: you're not playing on a real tabletop with real figures, rolling real dice. It turns out that is a big part of what makes these games enjoyable - even if experienced at the far end of a Skype call.

So I think we've found a good simulator for some games (and it's been so long since I played X-Wing, I'd love to give that try), but - with some relief - I don't have to pack away my miniatures any time soon.

For less 3D stuff, I think it's a cracker, and I can see new Necromunda or Shadespire both working very well. But for a big game with tons of models, nope, it's just too fiddly. So back to normal virtual reality via Skype for next time!