Round One of the war on Omus Principlais - and the Court of Miracles are facing their most hated enemies - the Adeptus Astartes!
The first mission was Vital Intelligence. In the narrative of the day, all the factions had arrived upon the planet of Omus Principlais to seek the mysterious and powerful Osrian Orb. So everyone was scrambling to secure information about it.
In the mechanicus of the game: there were five objectives on the table, and possession of each one at the end of the battle round secured one point. Each round, a randomly-determined objective was ‘active’ and worth double points (or, if a 6 was rolled, all objectives were double).
My first match-up was against Chris and his Salamanders – all of them old school marines, with a lot of bodies, a lot of melta, a lot of power fists and a monster of a tank to support them. In terms of the mission, all those objective secured troops could be a problem – I would need to ensure every squad was wiped out, as I couldn’t afford to have stray tactical marines wandering around, stealing objectives from me.
Points: 1500 | Battle-forged + Battalion + Outrider - Relic: 8 CPs
The Salamanders built themselves a fairly robust castle on their left flank: Land Raider, Dreadnought, three Tactical squads, Sternguard and Devastators. The remaining three Tacticals spread out across the rest of the line, with the Lieutenant keeping them in order.
But I went aggressive – I ignored the castle and hit the weaker right flank with everything I had. The idea being that I could secure First Strike, as well as pushing the Astartes off one of their ‘home’ objectives from the start. I ran forward with everything, then used the Dark Matter Crystal to jump the Rubric Marines into the right flank.
I also used Warptime to get the Mutalith onto the central objective. Shooting and psychic was very effective, the Rubrics blew away one unit of Tacticals, while Smite and the Enlightened’s arrows got rid of two more. With the exception of a lone Lieutenant, the Salamanders had just lost everything on the right flank.
The Salamanders hit back hard on their first turn. All that considerable firepower – including the scary amount of pain from the Land Raider - went into the Mutaliths. I rolled well for invulnerable saves, and only one of them fell, with another reduced to half wounds. The Flakk Missile stratagem was also felling my poor Tzaangor Enlightened with mortal wounds. A couple more Spawn fell to small arms fire, but I felt I’d weathered the worst of it. At the end of the round, I took an early lead on the objectives.
Turn two made the central objective the ‘active’ one, which suited me, as I was already swarming it. I consolidated around the centre, rather than pushing forward. There were a few drawbacks to my early success – with nothing left to kill, my Rubrics were out of position and could only take pot-shots at the retreating Lieutenant (though they were securing an objective).
Similarly, I had to keep my Daemon Prince on the back-left objective, where he couldn’t achieve anything else; and do the same with my surviving Spawn to hold the back-right objective (but it was a points game, so I needed to cover them all – oh, for some cheap Cultists to objective-squat).
I deepstruck one unit of Tzaangor in the centre, with the express purpose of charging the Librarian, who had unwisely moved closest to me. Shooting wasn’t so effective this time, and I only managed to plink off half the Devastator squad (still leaving that lethal missile launcher in place).
The charge on the Librarian was successful (aided by the Mutalith’s re-roll charges power). The unfortunate psyker was torn apart and – crucially – I consolidated into the Land Raider to tie up its shooting. I ended the turn with most of the objectives in my possession, but hadn’t really pressured the shooting castle much.
In the Salamanders second turn, they went for it: the Tactical left the Land Raider and hunted down the Spawm. The Lieutenant and Dreadnought went in against the Tzaangors. The shooting took down the wounded Mutalith and a few more Enlightened. Then came the charge phase: the unit of Tacticals with Power Fist hit the Spawn, killing one of them and taking the objective from them. The melee around the Land Raider ended with just one Tzaangor remaining after morale.
More crucially, another unit of Tacticals charged the Enlightened on the central, active objective. The astartes didn’t even need to kill anything, since none of my units were objective secured – which meant a four-point swing was in balance.
I sent in my Exalted Sorcerer to heroically intervene, but he only killed three marines, and the Enlightened couldn’t pierce the ceramite armour. I then remembered that the Discs (the ones that have never ever done anything in all the time I’ve played them) needed to make their attacks.
Improbably, they wounded the remaining two marines three times, and then Chris rolled double 1 for the saving throws. The active objective was mine, and I ended up scooping up a lot of points.
In the shooting phase, the Enlightened finally removed the Devastators, the Sorcerer’s combi-bolter picked off a few Tacticals, and the Rubrics bolters finally caught up with the Lieutenant. In the charge Phase, the Deamon Prince went against the Dreadnought and wrecked it. The Exalted Sorcerer fared less well, and every strike was foiled by the Armour Indomitous.
The Terminator Sorcerer reached the Tacticals and killed all but two of them. Finally, the Tzaangor charged both Land Raider – luckily their charge started outside the range of its scary flamer – and the last squad of Tacticals (who were further away, but I actually stood a chance of killing). I made the long charge into both, so was able to rip up the Tacticals while stopping the Land Raider from firing again. Fighting back the Chapter Master failed to harm my Exalted Sorcerer, but then played Honour the Chapter and knocked him off his Disc.
Rallying what was left, the Land Raider drew back from the Tzaangor, so the Sternguard could gun them down. The Lieutenant who fought the Tzaangor charged into the Enlightened, but was dragged down in short order. The Tacticals power fist sergeant landed a hit on the Terminator Sorcerer, but fell just short of killing him, though they were claiming the objective. For all that, the turn ended with me keeping the lead on points.
The Chapter Master got blasted apart by Smite, and I used Chaos Familiar stratagem to swap my Terminator’s powers to give him enough mortal wounds to clear off the Tactical and claim the objective (a crucial point, as it turned out). The remaining Enlightened tried to charge the Land Raider, but got hosed in Overwatch, so my Daemon Prince did the honours.
The Salamander ended their turn with just three Tacticals, one Sternguard and a mostly-untouched Land Raider that had barely fired all game. When we counted up the points, I had run away with the victory points by the end, racking up 17:10. That difference of 7 was just enough to give me a Significant Victory and put me on maximum points.
I was lucky having a mission that played well to my strengths of moving fast and taking objectives - although I was right to be afraid of the number of objective secured troops the Salamanders were fielding. If I hadn't removed half of them in the opening round, it would have been a real problem to score against. And the highly-unlikely double-kill from the Discs proved to be the decisive swing (so much for allowing no Command Point rerolls).
In the end, Chris ended up taking the Wooden Spoon, which was I think was an unfortunate reflection on a decent army (after my game, he played a really good Tyranid army, and then another Thousand Sons band – that Librarian can’t have enjoyed many Psychic Phases that day!). I really like Salamanders as an army, and the plethora of melta and power fists, combined with their re-roll ability, felt like they were never missing.
But the game was done, and in a brilliant touch for the event, we were given two sealed envelopes before the battle began. We could open one, depending on the result, and find out what happened next…
“The Court of Miracles always has a plan. On this occasion it had been executed to perfection and Hemuset was pleased. The blue clad servants of Tzeentch had secured the intelligence on the location of the Orb and could now enact the next stage of their design. The Astartes had been despatched with typical ease using their psychic might to full advantage, and now all stood between them and their goal was a thin red line of Mordian Guard. They will suffer the same fate as their Astartes allies through Hemuset, summoning his will for a fresh mutation to be pulled forth from the Warp”
The first mission was Vital Intelligence. In the narrative of the day, all the factions had arrived upon the planet of Omus Principlais to seek the mysterious and powerful Osrian Orb. So everyone was scrambling to secure information about it.
In the mechanicus of the game: there were five objectives on the table, and possession of each one at the end of the battle round secured one point. Each round, a randomly-determined objective was ‘active’ and worth double points (or, if a 6 was rolled, all objectives were double).
My first match-up was against Chris and his Salamanders – all of them old school marines, with a lot of bodies, a lot of melta, a lot of power fists and a monster of a tank to support them. In terms of the mission, all those objective secured troops could be a problem – I would need to ensure every squad was wiped out, as I couldn’t afford to have stray tactical marines wandering around, stealing objectives from me.
Adeptus Astartes - Salamanders
- Captain / Chapter Master (HQ) (Warlord)
Combi-plasma, Power fist,
Relic: The Armour Indomitus - Lieutenant (HQ)
Master-crafted boltgun, Power fist - Lieutenant (HQ)
Master-crafted boltgun, Power fist - Librarian (HQ)
Bolt pistol, Force stave
Relic: Tome of Malcador
Powers: 1) Veil of Time, 2) Might of Heroes, 6) Null Zone - 5 x Tactical Squad (Troop)
Sargent: Power fist/Bolt pistol, 3 x Boltguns, Meltagun - 5 x Tactical Squad (Troop)
Sargent: Boltgun/Bolt pistol, 3 x Boltguns, Meltagun - 5 x Tactical Squad (Troop)
Sargent: Boltgun/Bolt pistol, 3 x Boltguns, Meltagun - 5 x Tactical Squad (Troop)
Sargent: Boltgun/Bolt pistol, 3 x Boltguns, Meltagun - 5 x Tactical Squad (Troop)
Sargent: Boltgun/Bolt pistol, 3 x Boltguns, Meltagun - 5 x Tactical Squad (Troop)
Sargent: Boltgun/Bolt pistol, 3 x Boltguns, Meltagun - 5 x Sternguard Veteran Squad (Elite)
Sargent: Special issue Boltgun, 4 x Special issue boltgun - Dreadnought: (Elite)
Multi-melta, Dreadnought combat weapon w/Heavy Flamer - 5 x Devastator Squad (Heavy)
Sergeant: Combi-flamer, Power sword, Armorium Cherub, 2 x Multi-melta, Lascannon, Missile launcher - Land Raider Redeemer (Heavy)
2 x Flamestorm cannon, Multi-melta, Twin assault cannon
The Court of Miracles - Thousand Sons
- Daemon Prince with wings (HQ) (Warlord)
2 x Malefic talons,
Bolt of Change, Gaze of Fate
Warlord Trait: Otherworldly Prescience
Relic: Dark Matter Crystal - Exalted Sorcerer on Disc of Tzeentch (HQ)
Two Power Swords, Inferno Bolt Pistol, Frag & Krak Grenades,
Prescience, Warptime
Relics of the Thousand Sons: Seer's Bane - Sorcerer in Terminator Armour (HQ)
Force Stave, Inferno combi-bolter, Frag & Krak Grenades,
Death Hex, Doombolt - 9 x Rubric Marines (Troop)
Force Stave, Warpflamer Pistol, 7 x Inferno Bolters, 1 x Warpflamer - 12 x Tzaangor (Troop)
Icon of Flame, Brayhorn, Tzaangor blades - 12 x Tzaangor (Troop)
Icon of Flame, Brayhorn, Tzaangor blades - Tzaangor Shaman (Elite)
Force Stave, Weaver of Fates - Tzaangor Shaman (Elite)
Force Stave, Glamour of Tzeentch - 4 x Tzaangor Enlightened (Fast)
Fatecaster Greatbow - 4 x Tzaangor Enlightened (Fast)
Fatecaster Greatbow - 4 x Chaos Spawn (Fast)
Hideous mutations - Mutalith Vortex Beast (Heavy)
Enormous Claws, Betentacled Maw - Mutalith Vortex Beast (Heavy)
Enormous Claws, Betentacled Maw - + 25 reinforcement points
Points: 1500 | Battle-forged + Battalion + Outrider - Relic: 8 CPs
Deployment
Dawn of War deployment, and I set up stretched out across the line, since I had to cover everything. Rubrics, Daemon Prince, two Enlightened and Shaman hiding behind a building, with both Mutaliths and the Spawn weighing the right flank. The two Tzaangor units and Terminator Sorcerer went into deepstrike.
The Salamanders built themselves a fairly robust castle on their left flank: Land Raider, Dreadnought, three Tactical squads, Sternguard and Devastators. The remaining three Tacticals spread out across the rest of the line, with the Lieutenant keeping them in order.
Turn 1
I started by winning the roll-off to take the first turn – which was not ideal. I’ve played this before, and there’s a lot of virtue in going second to steal objectives before the scoring happens. Even worse, the active objective was right in the Salamander castle, so I wasn’t getting that one.But I went aggressive – I ignored the castle and hit the weaker right flank with everything I had. The idea being that I could secure First Strike, as well as pushing the Astartes off one of their ‘home’ objectives from the start. I ran forward with everything, then used the Dark Matter Crystal to jump the Rubric Marines into the right flank.
I also used Warptime to get the Mutalith onto the central objective. Shooting and psychic was very effective, the Rubrics blew away one unit of Tacticals, while Smite and the Enlightened’s arrows got rid of two more. With the exception of a lone Lieutenant, the Salamanders had just lost everything on the right flank.
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| Not pictured: the Salamanders' right flank. |
The Salamanders hit back hard on their first turn. All that considerable firepower – including the scary amount of pain from the Land Raider - went into the Mutaliths. I rolled well for invulnerable saves, and only one of them fell, with another reduced to half wounds. The Flakk Missile stratagem was also felling my poor Tzaangor Enlightened with mortal wounds. A couple more Spawn fell to small arms fire, but I felt I’d weathered the worst of it. At the end of the round, I took an early lead on the objectives.
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| Not pictured: the Thousand Sons' right flank. |
Turn 2
Turn two made the central objective the ‘active’ one, which suited me, as I was already swarming it. I consolidated around the centre, rather than pushing forward. There were a few drawbacks to my early success – with nothing left to kill, my Rubrics were out of position and could only take pot-shots at the retreating Lieutenant (though they were securing an objective).Similarly, I had to keep my Daemon Prince on the back-left objective, where he couldn’t achieve anything else; and do the same with my surviving Spawn to hold the back-right objective (but it was a points game, so I needed to cover them all – oh, for some cheap Cultists to objective-squat).
I deepstruck one unit of Tzaangor in the centre, with the express purpose of charging the Librarian, who had unwisely moved closest to me. Shooting wasn’t so effective this time, and I only managed to plink off half the Devastator squad (still leaving that lethal missile launcher in place).
The charge on the Librarian was successful (aided by the Mutalith’s re-roll charges power). The unfortunate psyker was torn apart and – crucially – I consolidated into the Land Raider to tie up its shooting. I ended the turn with most of the objectives in my possession, but hadn’t really pressured the shooting castle much.
In the Salamanders second turn, they went for it: the Tactical left the Land Raider and hunted down the Spawm. The Lieutenant and Dreadnought went in against the Tzaangors. The shooting took down the wounded Mutalith and a few more Enlightened. Then came the charge phase: the unit of Tacticals with Power Fist hit the Spawn, killing one of them and taking the objective from them. The melee around the Land Raider ended with just one Tzaangor remaining after morale.
More crucially, another unit of Tacticals charged the Enlightened on the central, active objective. The astartes didn’t even need to kill anything, since none of my units were objective secured – which meant a four-point swing was in balance.
I sent in my Exalted Sorcerer to heroically intervene, but he only killed three marines, and the Enlightened couldn’t pierce the ceramite armour. I then remembered that the Discs (the ones that have never ever done anything in all the time I’ve played them) needed to make their attacks.
Improbably, they wounded the remaining two marines three times, and then Chris rolled double 1 for the saving throws. The active objective was mine, and I ended up scooping up a lot of points.
Turn 3
The central objective remained the active one for the third turn, and I started with a counter-attack. My Daemon Prince finally got into the fight, swapping control of the objective with a Tzaangor Shaman, and Warptiming his way into charge distance of the Dreadnought. I deepstruck my Terminator Sorcerer to support the lone Spawn, and dropped the last unit of Tzaangor to throw themselves into the Land Raider. Having wet his blade on Tacticals, my Exalted Sorcerer went to bring down the Chapter Master.
In the shooting phase, the Enlightened finally removed the Devastators, the Sorcerer’s combi-bolter picked off a few Tacticals, and the Rubrics bolters finally caught up with the Lieutenant. In the charge Phase, the Deamon Prince went against the Dreadnought and wrecked it. The Exalted Sorcerer fared less well, and every strike was foiled by the Armour Indomitous.
The Terminator Sorcerer reached the Tacticals and killed all but two of them. Finally, the Tzaangor charged both Land Raider – luckily their charge started outside the range of its scary flamer – and the last squad of Tacticals (who were further away, but I actually stood a chance of killing). I made the long charge into both, so was able to rip up the Tacticals while stopping the Land Raider from firing again. Fighting back the Chapter Master failed to harm my Exalted Sorcerer, but then played Honour the Chapter and knocked him off his Disc.
Rallying what was left, the Land Raider drew back from the Tzaangor, so the Sternguard could gun them down. The Lieutenant who fought the Tzaangor charged into the Enlightened, but was dragged down in short order. The Tacticals power fist sergeant landed a hit on the Terminator Sorcerer, but fell just short of killing him, though they were claiming the objective. For all that, the turn ended with me keeping the lead on points.
Turn 4
Turn four was going to be our last one, due to time running out, but neither of us had much left by this point. Luckily, what I had was still pretty deadly, and the active objective was the one my Rubrics had been sitting one since turn one.The Chapter Master got blasted apart by Smite, and I used Chaos Familiar stratagem to swap my Terminator’s powers to give him enough mortal wounds to clear off the Tactical and claim the objective (a crucial point, as it turned out). The remaining Enlightened tried to charge the Land Raider, but got hosed in Overwatch, so my Daemon Prince did the honours.
The Salamander ended their turn with just three Tacticals, one Sternguard and a mostly-untouched Land Raider that had barely fired all game. When we counted up the points, I had run away with the victory points by the end, racking up 17:10. That difference of 7 was just enough to give me a Significant Victory and put me on maximum points.
Result: Significant Victory to Thousand Sons!
Locker Room
It was brilliant game. In all honesty, I was feeling the nerves heading into my first tournament (not about winning or losing, just about stuffing it up), but Chris proved to be a great opponent: knew his army, we had a good chat throughout the game, and he played in a really good spirit – even when the game turned into an uphill struggle for him. He even loaned me his tray to carry my army (note to self: next time, bring a tray).I was lucky having a mission that played well to my strengths of moving fast and taking objectives - although I was right to be afraid of the number of objective secured troops the Salamanders were fielding. If I hadn't removed half of them in the opening round, it would have been a real problem to score against. And the highly-unlikely double-kill from the Discs proved to be the decisive swing (so much for allowing no Command Point rerolls).
In the end, Chris ended up taking the Wooden Spoon, which was I think was an unfortunate reflection on a decent army (after my game, he played a really good Tyranid army, and then another Thousand Sons band – that Librarian can’t have enjoyed many Psychic Phases that day!). I really like Salamanders as an army, and the plethora of melta and power fists, combined with their re-roll ability, felt like they were never missing.
But the game was done, and in a brilliant touch for the event, we were given two sealed envelopes before the battle began. We could open one, depending on the result, and find out what happened next…
“The Court of Miracles always has a plan. On this occasion it had been executed to perfection and Hemuset was pleased. The blue clad servants of Tzeentch had secured the intelligence on the location of the Orb and could now enact the next stage of their design. The Astartes had been despatched with typical ease using their psychic might to full advantage, and now all stood between them and their goal was a thin red line of Mordian Guard. They will suffer the same fate as their Astartes allies through Hemuset, summoning his will for a fresh mutation to be pulled forth from the Warp”
Poor Salamanders! I feel for those snake eyes. Sounds like a good scrappy match, though.
ReplyDeleteIt was a fairly devastated field by the end of it, on both sides.
DeleteIf it had played out, I might have had enough Smite to take out the Land Raider (though I would have probably just flown away and hidden in a corner).
But, true to 8th Ed, it was all about those objectives.
Well played! And yeah, a movement tray is one of those things that isn't strictly required, but makes a tournament so much easier to get through.
ReplyDeleteIt's funny the essentials you need for a tournament that aren't just miniatures, dice and rules. Luckily I remembered to pack plenty of water and snacks, as I didn't leave the hall all day.
DeleteBrilliant game and narration mate!
ReplyDeleteThanks! Glad you enjoyed it.
Delete