Round Two of the war on Omus Principlais - and the Court of Miracles crash against the thin red lines of the Mordian 29th Iron Guard!
The second mission was Visions of Victory - a huge electrical storm has broken out over the planet of Omus Principlais, confusing the vox and command channels of the warring parties. Who will be able to make sense of their orders and press on to the Osiris Orb?
In the mechanicus of the game: you have four objectives in hand, but you have to draw two cards for each one, and your opponent gets to choose which one you have to play (the other goes back into the deck). It's a wonderfully evil scenario that I very much enjoy, and it rewards a balanced, mobile list that is ready to go for anything that comes out of the deck.
My opponent for game two was the one I'd been hoping to face this tournament. John had been working on his old metal Mordians in the run-up to the weekend, painting them in proper C19th British army colours, and only just finishing them in time. John won a special hobby achievement award for the effort, and deservedly so. I don't think there was a player in attendance who didn't stop to take a look at them.
But enough of that - my job was the smash that army. And, much as I was delighted to face these Imperials, I reckoned I might struggle against it. My ability to pump our mortal wounds wasn't going to be much use against the massed ranks, and I had no real answer to the tanks parked behind the infantry. There was also a lot of firepower going on, which my army does not enjoy, and one stationary Punisher Leman Russ could easily delete a whole unit of Tzaangor in one turn.
The Mordians, in the traditional style, formed concentric lines of infantry, with their tanks parked at the back and Armoured Sentinels up front. I learned that Mordians' Parade Ground regimental doctrine gives them bonus when they stand shoulder-to-shoulder (or track-to-track, in their tanks' case).
Throw in Defensive Gunners (it's not like they're short on command points) and Overwatch practically becomes a normal round of shooting. Hmmm... can't sit back and get shot, can't run at them and get shot. This one could be challenging.
The Shooting Phase didn't improve matters. Some of the tanks were out of range, far back at the end of the field, but every other heavy gun (and small arms gun - Imperial Guard have a lot of small arms fire) went into the Mutaliths. A combination of poor rolls and some lucky saves by me resulted in both beasts still alive when the dust settled.
My first turn gave me some better cards, even after discarding. Basically I had to get out of my deployment zone and get stuck in. No arguments here - everything raced forward to engage the front lines of the Mordians, while the slow-moving Rubrics were once again teleported with the Dark Matter Crystal into a distant objective to face one of the Armoured Sentinels.
In the Psychic Phase, I got off a good round of buffs, and secured First Strike by Smiting one of the Armoured Sentinels. The other Sentinel facing my Rubrics stubbornly refused to die after getting hosed with Inferno Boltguns and keeping its last wound.
In the Assault Phase, I rolled big on the charges and one unit of Enlightend flew into the nearest infantry squad (which they'd already filled with arrows). The Spawn also made a long charge and pounced on the last Armoured Sentinel, who once again refused to die on its last wound (what is it with these Sentinels?).
It actually turned to my advantage when my Enlightened were able to consolidate backwards into the Sentinel, preventing it from escaping and sparing me from all that lasgun fire that I knew would be coming their way (what a rotter I am).
It was a good first turn: I'd achieved all my objectives, so I'd be getting a fresh draw next turn. I'd moved quick into the enemy lines and I'd done some damage, but there was just so much of the Imperial Guard standing firm that was untouched. I have to say, that alone made it feel properly narrative.
The Shooting Phase did finally drop one Mutalith Vortex Beast and put the hurt on another. Some sporadic lasgun fire even killed a few Rubric Marines, which was a surprise to me, since they had a 2+ save.
The only combat was against the poor Armoured Sentinel, who was predictably dragged down by the Spawn.
Ultimately, the Imperium's guns were not inflicting enough damage. This was partly due to my spread of high toughness monsters and invulnerable saves, but it was also due to the battlefield. While it appeared to be a fairly open field, there were a lot of stone monoliths that were causing the Imperium a real line-of-sight problem, and so many bodies that left nowhere for the tanks to redeploy.
On my second turn, my objectives were all achievable. It was a tough call for John, who had to discard high-value cards, but leave me with objectives I could easily get - such as securing objectives I already possessed.
To continue the pressure, I deepstruck one unit of Tzaangor. There was no chance of getting them into the backfield - the army was properly set up to deny that kind of nonsense - so I just put them up front to continue battering down the door.
More buffs all around in the Psychic Phase, together with a Smite that removed the last Armoured Sentinel. When it came to assaults, I made everything I wanted: Spawn into the flanking Squad (ate them all up) and Tzaangor into the closest infantry squad (chopped them down).
Crucially, a unit of Enlightened made it into combat with the same squad, and were close enough to the nearest Battle Tank that, when they consolidated forward, were able to engage it in combat (without having to weather the Overwatch). So as long as I could keep hitting infantry squads protecting nearby armoured vehicles, I may have solved my tank problem.
The Punisher Gatling Cannon tore through the Tzaangor unit, and the last two survivors found themselves on the sharp end of a Mordian bayonet charge.
And with a couple of achievable objectives drawn this turn, the Mordians finally managed to get on the scoresheet.
My next draw of an objectives was a confusing one that forced me to pull back with some of my forces to secure backline objectives. I used my flying Disc characters to do this, while still pressing forward with my Spawn, who charged an infantry unit and consolidated into the lead Battle Tank; the second unit of Tzaangors, who dropped into replace the first, then made exactly the same charge into the enemy lines.
My Daemon Prince also decided to take matters into his own claws, and flew into the centre of the command structure to challenge the enemy commander.
He paused briefly on his journey to hit a nearby Platoon Commander with Bolt of Change - which did just enough mortal wounds to turn him into a Chaos Spawn (I knew I brought those 25 reinforcement points for something!)
The Daemon Prince hit the whole command unit, but spent all his attacks to ensure the enemy general was dead, thus securing Assassinate and Slay the Warlord. For good measure, he made sure the dreaded Punisher Tank was locked up in the consolidation move.
With time being called, we ended it at Turn 3 (Imperial Guard turns require a lot of dice and movement!), but the battle was pretty much done. There was very little left in terms of infantry, and the tanks were either locked up, or going to be engaged in the subsequent turn.
More crucially for the mission, I had been able to secure 12 victory points to my opponent's 2, so that gave me another maximum point victory.
Despite my concerns about tanks and massed ranks, I was reasonably confident with Visions of Victory, as I knew my army was capable of scoring most things if it needed to. Mind you, I had the rub of the green - if my objectives had been deep in the heart of the enemy lines, there was no way I was getting there. Likewise, John had a bad draw of cards that only got worse, which is a real problem when your opponent starts running away with it.
But in the bigger picture... it was a real pleasure to play out the narrative of a Chaos army crashing against the massed ranks of the Imperial Guard. They stood firm, they charged with bayonets, they fought their own officer when he got turned into a Spawn. And, most crucially, the did not let the colours fall.
The tournament goes on, which meant I could open my second narrative envelope:
"It had been a massacre. The red-coated Mordians of the 29th had formed square in a vain attempt to defend their position, but the Court of Miracles had surged from the storm in an explosion of psychic energy. Volley upon volley of las fire had been poured into the Thousand Sons, but in vain as they broke the Guard lines. The blue clad heretic Astartes advanced on their next objective as they sought the Orb. This time, all that stood in their was a small force of Adeptus Mechanicus Skitarii encamped on a ridge to the west."
The second mission was Visions of Victory - a huge electrical storm has broken out over the planet of Omus Principlais, confusing the vox and command channels of the warring parties. Who will be able to make sense of their orders and press on to the Osiris Orb?
In the mechanicus of the game: you have four objectives in hand, but you have to draw two cards for each one, and your opponent gets to choose which one you have to play (the other goes back into the deck). It's a wonderfully evil scenario that I very much enjoy, and it rewards a balanced, mobile list that is ready to go for anything that comes out of the deck.
My opponent for game two was the one I'd been hoping to face this tournament. John had been working on his old metal Mordians in the run-up to the weekend, painting them in proper C19th British army colours, and only just finishing them in time. John won a special hobby achievement award for the effort, and deservedly so. I don't think there was a player in attendance who didn't stop to take a look at them.
But enough of that - my job was the smash that army. And, much as I was delighted to face these Imperials, I reckoned I might struggle against it. My ability to pump our mortal wounds wasn't going to be much use against the massed ranks, and I had no real answer to the tanks parked behind the infantry. There was also a lot of firepower going on, which my army does not enjoy, and one stationary Punisher Leman Russ could easily delete a whole unit of Tzaangor in one turn.
29th Mordian - Astra Militarum
- Company Commander (HQ) (Warlord)
Bolt Pistol, Power fist,
Relic: Order of the Iron Star of Mordian
Trait: Iron Discipline - Company Commander (HQ)
Laspistol, Power sword - Primaris Psyker (HQ)
Force Stave
Powers: Nightshroud, Psychic Barrier - Tank Commander (HQ)
Heavy Bolters, Heavy Stubber, Lascannon, Battle Cannon - 10 x Infantry Squad (Troop)
Flamer, Heavy bolter, Sergeant: Power sword - 10 x Infantry Squad (Troop)
Flamer, Heavy bolter, Sergeant: Power sword - 10 x Infantry Squad (Troop)
Grenade Launcher, Autocannon - 10 x Infantry Squad (Troop)
Grenade Launcher, Autocannon - 10 x Infantry Squad (Troop)
Grenade Launcher, Lascannon - 10 x Infantry Squad (Troop)
Grenade Launcher, Lascannon - Astropath (Elite)
Telepathica Stave
Powers: Nightshroud - 4 x Command Squad (Elite)
Laspistol & Chainsword, Medi-pack, Regimental Standard, Meltagun - Commissar (Elite)
Bolt pistol, Power sword - Platoon Commander (Elite)
Bolt pistol, Chainsword - Platoon Commander (Elite)
Laspistol, Chainsword - Tech-Priest Enginseer (Elite)
Laspistol, Omnissian Axe, Servo-Arm - Armoured Sentinel (Fast)
Lascannon - Armoured Sentinel (Fast)
Lascannon - Armoured Sentinel (Fast)
Lascannon - Leman Russ Battle Tank (Heavy)
Battle Cannon, Heavy Bolter, Heavy Bolters, Heavy Stubber - Leman Russ Battle Tank (Heavy)
Battle Cannon, Heavy Bolter, Heavy Bolters, Heavy Stubber - Leman Russ Punisher (Heavy)
Punisher Gatling Cannon, Heavy Bolter, Heavy Bolters, Heavy Stubber
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
Deployment
Search and Destroy deployment - the one in opposing quadrants with an 18" diameter circle between armies. Not knowing if I was going first or not, I hid my fragile or valuable stuff - Rubrics and Enlightened - behind a big rock, and put my tougher Mutaliths and Spawn up front, ready to race ahead. As before, the two Tzaangor units and Terminator Sorcerer went into deepstrike.
The Mordians, in the traditional style, formed concentric lines of infantry, with their tanks parked at the back and Armoured Sentinels up front. I learned that Mordians' Parade Ground regimental doctrine gives them bonus when they stand shoulder-to-shoulder (or track-to-track, in their tanks' case).
Throw in Defensive Gunners (it's not like they're short on command points) and Overwatch practically becomes a normal round of shooting. Hmmm... can't sit back and get shot, can't run at them and get shot. This one could be challenging.
Turn 1
John got the first turn, but got a pretty poor draw of objective cards. I didn't help matters by discarding any ones he stood a chance of securing, so he was left with a load of objectives in remote sections of the board.The Shooting Phase didn't improve matters. Some of the tanks were out of range, far back at the end of the field, but every other heavy gun (and small arms gun - Imperial Guard have a lot of small arms fire) went into the Mutaliths. A combination of poor rolls and some lucky saves by me resulted in both beasts still alive when the dust settled.
My first turn gave me some better cards, even after discarding. Basically I had to get out of my deployment zone and get stuck in. No arguments here - everything raced forward to engage the front lines of the Mordians, while the slow-moving Rubrics were once again teleported with the Dark Matter Crystal into a distant objective to face one of the Armoured Sentinels.
In the Psychic Phase, I got off a good round of buffs, and secured First Strike by Smiting one of the Armoured Sentinels. The other Sentinel facing my Rubrics stubbornly refused to die after getting hosed with Inferno Boltguns and keeping its last wound.
In the Assault Phase, I rolled big on the charges and one unit of Enlightend flew into the nearest infantry squad (which they'd already filled with arrows). The Spawn also made a long charge and pounced on the last Armoured Sentinel, who once again refused to die on its last wound (what is it with these Sentinels?).
It actually turned to my advantage when my Enlightened were able to consolidate backwards into the Sentinel, preventing it from escaping and sparing me from all that lasgun fire that I knew would be coming their way (what a rotter I am).
It was a good first turn: I'd achieved all my objectives, so I'd be getting a fresh draw next turn. I'd moved quick into the enemy lines and I'd done some damage, but there was just so much of the Imperial Guard standing firm that was untouched. I have to say, that alone made it feel properly narrative.
Turn 2
The Mordians weren't getting any better luck with the one fresh card they could draw, but they did start to move forward: mostly to dress their lines, bring two of their tanks forward into range and send a flanking squad to secure a corner objective.The Shooting Phase did finally drop one Mutalith Vortex Beast and put the hurt on another. Some sporadic lasgun fire even killed a few Rubric Marines, which was a surprise to me, since they had a 2+ save.
The only combat was against the poor Armoured Sentinel, who was predictably dragged down by the Spawn.
Ultimately, the Imperium's guns were not inflicting enough damage. This was partly due to my spread of high toughness monsters and invulnerable saves, but it was also due to the battlefield. While it appeared to be a fairly open field, there were a lot of stone monoliths that were causing the Imperium a real line-of-sight problem, and so many bodies that left nowhere for the tanks to redeploy.
On my second turn, my objectives were all achievable. It was a tough call for John, who had to discard high-value cards, but leave me with objectives I could easily get - such as securing objectives I already possessed.
To continue the pressure, I deepstruck one unit of Tzaangor. There was no chance of getting them into the backfield - the army was properly set up to deny that kind of nonsense - so I just put them up front to continue battering down the door.
More buffs all around in the Psychic Phase, together with a Smite that removed the last Armoured Sentinel. When it came to assaults, I made everything I wanted: Spawn into the flanking Squad (ate them all up) and Tzaangor into the closest infantry squad (chopped them down).
Crucially, a unit of Enlightened made it into combat with the same squad, and were close enough to the nearest Battle Tank that, when they consolidated forward, were able to engage it in combat (without having to weather the Overwatch). So as long as I could keep hitting infantry squads protecting nearby armoured vehicles, I may have solved my tank problem.
Turn 3
The Guard were down to their penultimate lines, but showed their mettle. There was nothing left to pull back from combat but the Battle Tank, so everything else took aim at the Thousand Sons and opened fire. The combined lasguns took out the lead Enlightened, while squad heavy weapons and other two tanks dropped the final Mutalith.The Punisher Gatling Cannon tore through the Tzaangor unit, and the last two survivors found themselves on the sharp end of a Mordian bayonet charge.
 |
| "Give 'em the old cold steel!" |
And with a couple of achievable objectives drawn this turn, the Mordians finally managed to get on the scoresheet.
My next draw of an objectives was a confusing one that forced me to pull back with some of my forces to secure backline objectives. I used my flying Disc characters to do this, while still pressing forward with my Spawn, who charged an infantry unit and consolidated into the lead Battle Tank; the second unit of Tzaangors, who dropped into replace the first, then made exactly the same charge into the enemy lines.
My Daemon Prince also decided to take matters into his own claws, and flew into the centre of the command structure to challenge the enemy commander.
He paused briefly on his journey to hit a nearby Platoon Commander with Bolt of Change - which did just enough mortal wounds to turn him into a Chaos Spawn (I knew I brought those 25 reinforcement points for something!)
The Daemon Prince hit the whole command unit, but spent all his attacks to ensure the enemy general was dead, thus securing Assassinate and Slay the Warlord. For good measure, he made sure the dreaded Punisher Tank was locked up in the consolidation move.
With time being called, we ended it at Turn 3 (Imperial Guard turns require a lot of dice and movement!), but the battle was pretty much done. There was very little left in terms of infantry, and the tanks were either locked up, or going to be engaged in the subsequent turn.
More crucially for the mission, I had been able to secure 12 victory points to my opponent's 2, so that gave me another maximum point victory.
Result: Significant Victory to Thousand Sons!
Locker Room
Fantastic game against a stunning army. John was a brilliant opponent to play against. Having pushed to get his Mordians battle-ready, he'd had very little practice with them and so gamely played the whole day mastering rules, orders and stratagems on the fly. He did a great job, and his army came away with some one the best stories of the day (Two platoon commanders killing a Broodlord with krak grenade overwatch? A commissar overcharging his pistol, blowing up and denying the charge to his enemy?)Despite my concerns about tanks and massed ranks, I was reasonably confident with Visions of Victory, as I knew my army was capable of scoring most things if it needed to. Mind you, I had the rub of the green - if my objectives had been deep in the heart of the enemy lines, there was no way I was getting there. Likewise, John had a bad draw of cards that only got worse, which is a real problem when your opponent starts running away with it.
But in the bigger picture... it was a real pleasure to play out the narrative of a Chaos army crashing against the massed ranks of the Imperial Guard. They stood firm, they charged with bayonets, they fought their own officer when he got turned into a Spawn. And, most crucially, the did not let the colours fall.
The tournament goes on, which meant I could open my second narrative envelope:
"It had been a massacre. The red-coated Mordians of the 29th had formed square in a vain attempt to defend their position, but the Court of Miracles had surged from the storm in an explosion of psychic energy. Volley upon volley of las fire had been poured into the Thousand Sons, but in vain as they broke the Guard lines. The blue clad heretic Astartes advanced on their next objective as they sought the Orb. This time, all that stood in their was a small force of Adeptus Mechanicus Skitarii encamped on a ridge to the west."
That is a beautiful opposing force, that is. Almost a shame to defeat it.
ReplyDeleteThe old leadfellow in me shed a tear.
DeleteThey were lions led by a donkey!
ReplyDeleteMe (John P) by the way
DeleteNot to worry - a donkey-spawn conversion is in the works. ;-)
DeleteI think my fave part of this is that you actually managed to get a Spawn from Bolt of Change. I don't think I've ever seen that happen before!
ReplyDeleteI had to use my Gaze of Fate re-roll to ensure I did the full three wounds to kill him.
DeleteTotally worth it.
Watch out for a Mordian/Spawn conversion in the future.