A Clash Of Heroes: Thousand Sons vs Dark Angels

The gauntlet is thrown down between the mightiest heroes of the legion: nine Thousand Sons characters take on nine Dark Angels - it's X-Treme Killteam!

Once again, I was battling Mr AP Burn, who brought a full compliment of Dark Angels command structure!

The Mission - One Shall Stand

A few weeks ago, I posted an image of all the Thousand Sons sorcerers I have so far amassed (nine of them, naturally). Someone assumed this was an army and while, legally, it could be, it probably wouldn't survive long in a conventional fight.

Luckily, my Dark Angels opponent was up the challenge, and brought nine of his mightiest heroes to face me.

We used basic battle rules as a base - we're both running three Battleforged Supreme Command Detachments. No objectives or First Blood/Linebreaker/Slay the Warlord (although we are nominating a Warlord for the trait). This battle will be decided by killing!

As an additional twist, we valued each of our characters from 9 (the warlord) down to 1. For each kill, you would score the equivalent number of points (should the game end before everyone was dead).

Given the composition of my army (with a Smite potential of between 9-27 mortal wounds per turn), we agreed to treat Smite as a regular psychic power: one use per turn (though I could attempt it more than once).

And as a final flare, we broke open the treasury and gave everyone ALL the relics in the codex!

Armies

Thousand Sons

• Montu Atash, Exalted Sorcerer on Disc (HQ)
  Two Power Swords, Warpflame pistol, Frag & Krak Grenades,
  Warlord trait: Otherworldly Prescience
  Relic: Seer's Bane
  Psychic powers: Tzeentch’s Firestorm, Infernal Gaze
• Scynthius Ekurah, Exalted Sorcerer (HQ)
  Force Stave, Plasma Pistol, Frag & Krak Grenades,
  Relic: Dark Matter Crystal
  Psychic powers:  Prescience, Weaver of Fates
• Hemuset, Sorcerer in Terminator Armour (HQ)
  Familiar, Force Stave, Inferno Combi-bolter
  Relic: The Prismatic Staff
  Psychic powers: Diabolic Strength, Temporal Manipulation
• Lachesis, Sorcerer in Terminator Armour (HQ)
  Familiar, Force Stave, Inferno Combi-bolter
  Psychic powers: Tzeentch’s Firestorm, Weaver of Fates
• Clotho, Sorcerer (HQ)
  Force Stave, Inferno Bolt Pistol, Frag & Krak Grenades,
  Relic: Athenaean Scrolls
  Psychic powers: Gift of Chaos, Warptime
• Arac Rapathwin, Exalted Sorcerer on Disc (HQ)
  Two Power Swords, Warpflame pistol, Frag & Krak Grenades,
  Psychic powers: Doombolt, Death Hex
  Relic: Coruscator
• Atropos, Sorcerer (HQ)
  Force Stave, Inferno Bolt Pistol
  Psychic powers: Glamour of Tzeentch, Warptime
• Guron Sekra, Exalted Sorcerer (HQ)
  Force Stave, Plasma Pistol
  Relic: Helm of the Third Eye
  Psychic powers: Prescience, Temporal Manipulation
• Morta, Sorcerer (HQ)
  Force Stave, Inferno Bolt Pistol
  Psychic powers: Boon of Mutation, Temporal Manipulation

Points: 1139| Level: 64| Battle-forged + 3 x Supreme Command Detachment: 6 CPs

Dark Angels

All their swords have names.

• Azrael
  Sword of Secrets, the Lion’s Wrath, a bolt pistol, frag grenades and krak grenades
• Belial
  Sword of Silence and a storm bolter
• Sammael on CorvexRaven Sword , a bolt pistol, frag grenades and krak grenades. Corvex jetbike: plasma cannon and a twin storm bolter.
• Asmodai
  Blades of Reason, a crozius arcanum, bolt pistol, frag grenades and krak grenades
• Ezekiel
  Traitor’s Bane, the Deliverer, frag grenades and krak grenades
• Interrogator-Chaplain in Terminator ArmourCrozius arcanum and storm bolter.
• Librarian in Terminator Armour
  Force stave
• Primaris Master
  Heavenfall Blade, Master-crafted auto bolt rifle
• Primaris Lieutenant
  Bolt pistol, Plasma pistol

Points: 1209 | Level: 66 | Battle-forged + 3 x Supreme Command Detachment: 6 CPs

Deployment

Dark Angels win the roll-off to deploy first (which means they'll also be finishing first!). Not wanting to mess around, Azreal goes in the centre of the forest, and all his buddies group around him. 

Sammael takes point on his jetbike. The Interrogator-Chaplain and Librarian pop themselves into the telportarium.

I follow suit by sticking both my Terminator Sorcerers into deepstrike. The rest of my force splits into two units, making use of the lovely line-of-sight blocking terrain (I am, after all, facing bolt rifles and plasma cannons with pistols).

On the right, goes my warlord, the Pyrae Sorcerer on Disc, backed by another Corvidae Sorcerer and a regular Sorcerer.

Hiding behind the huge rock on the left flank is my Athanaean Sorcerer on Disc, accompanied by the Raptora Sorcerer and two more regular ones.

Dark Angels - Turn 1

The Dark Angels footslog towards the river, while Sammael zooms towards the centre, drawing sights on the left-hand group of Sorcerers.

This being open play, the two Terminator characters also drop down away from the left-hand group, though the Librarian sees no joy with his psychic powers.

A storm of fire opens up on the left hand group, killing one of the lesser Sorcerers, and then Sammael does the same on the right hand group, killing another.  Two down, and the Dark Angels go into an early lead.

Thousand Sons - Turn 1

I being my turn by forgetting to bring in my deepstrike Terminators (let's pretend that was deliberate) and moving forward with all my units to engage.

I gear up for the psychic phase, and it's a pretty successful one for me: I hold back on casting Smite - but who needs it, when you have Tzeentch's Firestorm and Infernal Gaze to target any unit you like. Poor Azrael goes down to a hail of psychic bullets and the warlord is down!

Everywhere else is spend buffing up my own guys - and crucially boosting my warlord's invulnerable save to 3++. He scoots off on his Disc to take on Sammael, while the Corvidae Sorcerer creeps around the side of the mountain.

The Disc Sorcerer is carrying the Seer's Bane, which makes short work of Sammael, chopping down all six of his wounds and sending the Ravenmaster crashing to the ground.

The other three Sorcerers charge into the Librarian and Interrogator-Chaplain. Attacks are focused on the Librarian, who goes down while the Interrogator-Chaplain punches back against the Raptora Sorcerer on foot.

So that's three of the biggest Dark Angels hitters taken down, for the exchange of two minor Sorcerers. Advantage Thousand Sons, but my Pyrae warlord is about to face the full wrath of the remaining characters.

Dark Angels - Turn 2

Sure enough, the tactics in the Dark Angels subsequent turn is to fire ineffectually, then charge into combat with the Pyrae Sorcerer.

He survives Ezekiel's attack, thanks to his boosted invulnerable save. I quickly pay the Command Points to interrupt, so he gets to do something before he goes.

Now the smart play would be to pick on one or two characters, and try and reduce the incoming attacks, but he's a dual-wielding swordsman on a spinning disc - of course he's going to attack everyone!

Numbers mean nothing when you're a badass with a magic sword.

I don't actually manage to kill anyone, but the Captain and Lieutenant are severely chopped down. And as a bonus for my chutzpah - I survive all the other attacks! My 3++ save gets the Sorcerer through unscathed!

Further down the river, the Librarian slays the Raptora on foot, and takes a few wounds in return.

Thousand Sons - Turn 2

Careful not the throw away my lead (and conscious of how easily I can whiff 3++ saves), I play it cautious and fly my warlord back out of combat and into cover. My Corvidae Exalted instead steps up to take on the group of Dark Angels in the river.

I also remember to drop in my Terminator Sorcerers. Neither of them manage to make their charges, but they provide some useful psychic buffs by healing wounds with Temporal Manipulation.

But that's about as far as my luck goes in the Psychic Phase - almost all of my attempts fail. Just as I resign myself to a duff phase, my Athanaean Sorcerer attempts to Death Hex away the Librarian's saving throw...

He not only fails, he rolls snake eyes, perils and blows himself up. The resulting psychic backlash is enough to kill the Librarian and the other Sorcerer, who was just minding his own business. Total Party Kill!

Back in the main party, a combination of small-arms and psychic blasts have already killed the Primaris Lieutenant and Captain, and the Exalted Corvidae charges in against the surviving two Dark Angels.

He kills Ezekiel, and survives the return attacks from the Master of Repentance. It's not looking good for the First Legion...

Dark Angels - Turn 3

Knee-deep in the bloodies river, there's nothing for Asmodai to keep fighting. He takes the Exalted Sorcerer down to two wounds, loses one himself, but can achieve no more.

Thousand Sons - Turn 3

With a Disc Sorcerer and two Terminators in reserve, I don't even cast any psychic powers. Everyone charges into the melee and Asmodai goes down under a battering of force staves.

Result: Thousand Sons 9 vs Dark Angels 5

Victory to Thousand Sons!

Credit: all the square images were courtesy of Armoury of The Rock's Instagram - check it out for lots more Warhammer 40k goodness.

Locker Room

Well, that was some inspired lunacy! I'm not sure what the takeaways are, other than psychic powers really tip the balance, even when you do leave Smite at home (and half your own losses come from Perils of the Warp).

When I first envisaged the game, I was thinking we would play on an urban battlefield, where terrain and blocked line-of-sight might have come into play. As it was, we all just ran into a central scrum and duked it out.

One note: the 'kill points' for each character is a nice idea, but completely redundant. It was also going to end up in a bloodbath.

It was a quick, knockabout game and I'm really glad we tried it - like Kill Team Plus. Anyone who has a similar collection of named characters should give it a go.