Curbstomp: Alpha Legion vs Imperial Knights

Enough of the tales of Stylus's Victories! I, Kraken, now return with more familiar fare. 

Having got enough of the Alpha Legion painted up that could put a trial force together, I reckoned the best thing to do would be punish them relentlessly for their very existence. So I challenged Kas's Imperial Knights to a scrap, for I am a glutton for punishment.

Feels like an age since picked up some 40k dice and was eager to get back in. I had not tried either mini, or daddy knights, and so was good with the suggestion.

WARNING - THE FOLLOWING BATTLE REPORT CONTAINS 

SCENES OF GRAPHIC TRAMPLING

Say Harrow to my Little Friends

Fielding everything I've painted so far got me 1300 points, and seeing as Kas had gone all in with his Lords of War, I had a hundred spare for a Rhino as well. Not that I have a chaos rhino painted up yet, so the Alphas borrowed a nice Imperial one to try and fly a false flag or two. 

No particular surprises here, although I've proxied a few anti-tank weapons to slightly improve my chances in what I fear is likely to be quite a rough ride! Plenty of characters to try and deprive Kas of Slay the Warlord, plus the Alpha Legion trait will hopefully take some of the sting out of the shooting. Otherwise, it's going to be duck and cover all the way!

Alpha Legion Battalion

• HQ - Daemon Prince, two malific talons, Death Hex, warlord, I Am Alpharius trait and the Slaaneshi Elixir relic
• HQ - Chaos Lord with combi-melta, thunder hammer
• Troops - 6 x Chaos Space Marines, lascannon, combi-melta for the champion
• Troops - 6 x Chaos Space Marines, lascannon, chainaxe and plasma pistol for the champion
• Troops - 10 x Cultists, heavy stubber
• Elites - Helbrute with claw and multimelta
• Elites - 2 x Greater Possessed
• Heavy Support - 3 x Obliterators
• Heavy Support - Venomcrawler
• Dedicated Transport - Rhino with combi-melta, havoc launcher

Knight Might

Kraken had suggested 1500 points, but my limited Swedish Knights did not present many customisation options. Although I had some magnetic weapons, I felt I should keep balanced, so two of each mini knight and a big robot covered in guns to lead them.

What can you say about a Castellan and his four Armiger pals? Other than yikes. And then Kas slipped in the Sacristan Warshrine too, which has some entertaining rules to boost your shooting, movement or durability. Not sure he's going to need it much...

Yes, 80 points for an interesting tactical choice. At end of movement activate shrine, which means can't shoot, and nerfs close combat; but you get a bonus next turn.

Imperial Knights Lords of War Detachment

• LoW - Castellan, Warlord
• LoW - 2 x Armiger Helverins
• LoW - 2 x Armiger Warglaives
• Plus a Fortification Network Detachment for the Sacristan Warshrine

Kas does have the relevant bits of terrain to build a pretty decent replica Sacristan Warshrine at home, but I don't. This proxy is held together with blutack, and looks suitably mechanical.

Mission and Deployment

Once I'd blocked as much line of sight on the battlefield as I dared, we rolled for a random Maelstrom mission. Scars of War was the result, from CA 2018, the twist in which is that a sixth of your objective cards are missing in action, having been torn up by high command when they drew Domination for the ninth game running. 

I got to choose deployment, and took Dawn of War plus the north edge. 

Kas went into cover as best as he can given he's three stories high and bristling with guns, putting the Castellan in the shrine on objective three, the Warglaives on his right flank and the Helverins in cover on the left. 

My Rhino (Lord, both Greater Possessed and a squad of Chaos Marines inside) hid with the Helbrute and Daemon Prince behind some boxes. The Venomcrawler prowled in a wood further along the line, with the Cultists camping on Objective 1 in the corner and the other Marine squad on the opposite flank. Obliterators in orbit, of course, I had too much riding on them to leave any chance of being shot up early. 

Kas went first, but not before we rolled to see what we wouldn't be getting as objectives. Kas lost all his fours - Advance, Hold the Line, etc, board control type ones. I lost all my twos, the Secure Objectives! Not great, I was hoping to be better at those than the Knights, but hey ho. 

Knights Turn 1

I chose first turn, but then promptly realised I would have little to shoot. Oh well: time to get into position. I also got a good objective, a Knights' one that gives VP for keeping the enemy out of my deployment zone and bonus points if the middle is clear too. Can't get it yet, but there for next turn.

The big knight powered up in the shrine, ensuring next turn his Volcano Lance would fire on maximal power (ie 6 not d6 shots).

The Helverins split up, one eyeing the only target it could reasonably see: some cultists; and the other stomping forward to check out this spidery thing in the woods.

On the other flank the Warglaives hugged the buildings but romped forward hoping to take some pot shots at the Chaos Marines. 

I had not got round to writing up/devising the Crypt Angels Household, so these were from Raven - a Mechanicus house that could advance and shoot assault with no penalty or advance and treat heavy as assault. So they were nippy.

One Helverin unloaded on the Venomcrawler, dropping it to half wounds (nice guns); and the owed mowed down 4 cultists, before scaring 2 more.

One warglaive cut down a lone marine, the other tore nine wounds off the Rhino (much to Kraken's surprise, not realising they still had a single 30" range gun to bear each).

The range was as much of a surprise as the line of sight! I'd underestimated how fast they can go as well as their guns - even though I've fielded them myself, I thought their thermal lances were 24".

No VP yet (cards were assassinate and two special Knight cards: score if nothing in deployment, and more in nothing near center, but not on first turn; and win a hand to hand phase against with a character... I only had one character, I ditched that card and moved on).

Alpha Legion Turn 1

Objectives would be really my only hope for victory here, and it wasn't an ace first draw. Behind Enemy Lines was okay, but Defend Objective 4 would mean camping in an open field right in front of the Castellan and Assassinate meant killing the tallest order on the board, the Castellan. Well, needs must when the devil drives. 

The Rhino limped out of cover and coughed a feeble round of fire into the nearest Warglaive - I had meant to advance and cough smoke, really, and I really should have for all the effect I had. At least the Alpha Legionnaires took a full six off it with their lascannon. 

On the far flank, the depleted Cultists ran for cover, as did the regenerating Venomcrawler, although it kept a bead on the incoming Helverin. That was all anyone managed, though, the Helbrute wasn't coming out until the Castellan had used up its extra shoot juice and the few other shots I took pattered off armour. 

After this tame start, I threw away Defend 4 and hoped for better. 

Knights Turn 2

I drew Secure Obj 1, so the left Helverin marched up the left flank blowing up cultists and taking pot shots at the Venomcrawler, whilst his brother continued its onslaught on the Venomcrawler. A well spent command point reroll and the Venomcrawler saved it's second armour roll and was in the fight on 1 wound remaining.

Maybe overkill, but the Castellan could only target the Rhino; so with gay abandon fired everything at it. I think it was on -17 wounds by the end. It had the decency to kill one passenger though.

One of the skulking warglaives moved to the centre to shoot some Space Marines, and the other backed away providing a tempting charge. They both shot and took down the rest of the squad. Then I scored the objective from last turn, getting an easy bonus as Kraken was still stuck in his backfield.

Objectives Scored - Yield No Ground (2)

Alpha Legion Turn 2

Right, what little hammer I had would have to drop right now.  The new orders were Claim and Despoil, take an objective from the enemy, and by slapping the Obliterators down in front of the Armiger on 2, I might be able to get a long charge in and nick it from him. 

Or just kill the damn thing - everyone piled up my left flank as fast as they could. No Death Hex on the Warglaive, but it was already on half wounds and that turned out to be peanuts for the Obliterators, who rolled as well as possible for their Fleshmetal. Yay, I got one!

Nice guns!

On the far flank, I tried a risky charge with the Venomcrawler on the grounds that it could probably outfight a Helverin. Not if it gets all its legs shot off by overwatch, it can't! I nearly got there, but two hits was enough to take it out, even after spending a reroll on an armour save that could have made the difference. 

And even regenerating, the 3 damage cannon put down the charge.

Having killed the Warglaive, I couldn't charge into it on Objective 2, but I wasn't going to waste tears on that. Instead, I ditched Claim and Despoil. 

This is what I was fearing. Point the army at one model at a time, and delete it with no answer back. I only had 5 models.

'Only' seems somewhat misleading on those brutes!

Knights Turn 3

I drew Defend objective 2; near where my smoldering Warglaive was. 

One Helverin camped on objective 1 to score that, and lined up a long rang shot against the Chaos forces; as the other speedily nipped up a bridge to draw a second bead; leaving just the lascannon marine alive. Who went on to heroically pass his morale thanks to Command Points.

The Castellan remained plugged into his shrine, but opted to continue shooting at whatever he could see and target. Which was unfortunately a lone Hellbrute. 

Guess how that turned out?

Objectives Scored - Secure Objective 1 (1)

Alpha Legion Turn 3

New mission - Advance! That tied in well with what I wanted to do, which was run in a panic into as much cover as possible. It made for a short turn as well as some heavy cover and my first score, but Kas would be hard placed to shoot me now. If I rolled forward, there was still a hope I could overwhelm the Castellan and steal a good bonus for Behind Enemy Lines. 

Objectives Scored - Advance (1)

Knights Turn 4

I drew a card requiring a failed psychology test.. that was going in the bin at the end of the round.

The two Helverins ran along the backlines hoping to pincer the Chaos Marines in the corridor of death they chose to hide in.

I expected, that with an advance, the Castellan could get close enough to the building to see over the top to shoot the hiding Alpha Squad. He could and did.

The movement penalties plus the Alpha Legion Hiding penalties meant he didn't hit that much. So he only blew up a pair of Obliterators, nicely nerfing their firepower.

This left his shrine empty which a lowly Warglaive went to power up in.

Objectives Scored - Assassinate (1)

Alpha Legion Turn 4

Right, this wasn't looking great. Trapped in an alley with Knights at both ends, the only way out was going to be through them. My new objective, The Long War, could really get me back in the game. I'd have to kill something first, of course, but if I somehow punched through the Castellan the sheer wealth of VPs for doing so would probably get me the game!

If only I had more to do it with...

The DP managed to slap his wings flat against the side of the building at the end. It meant a longer charge, but it also meant not getting Volcano Cannoned to death before hitting home. The Chaos Lord sandwiched himself between the Lascannon and the Obliterator, the Greater Possessed just kept on running. 

If only I had got a bit further round the building.

Shooting - I threw everything into that huge death robot. There was still no Death Hex from the Prince, I guess he was too busy limbering up for a fight, so I chipped off a pair of mortal wounds with a Daemon Shell from the Lord's combigun. Then the Lascannon missed, a two that I couldn't reroll of course, so I threw out the last of my CPs on Veterans of the Long War and Endless Cacophony on the Obliterator. 

It wasn't that impressive, sadly - with its shields intact, the big lug took a lone wound from some pretty decent shooting. The Daemon Prince fared a bit better, shearing off another six in combat, but there were plenty more where that came from.

When the first wound was plinked, I was surprised when Kraken joked only 29 to go. I thought it was a wild over estimate... until I looked a realised it was 27 to go.

Then the Castellan casually trod on the Daemon Prince, who went home in an envelope. Then it came round the corner with a big grin on its face, and a shooting gallery of expensive characters to wreck.

Titanic feet are quite powerful. As a shooty knight he did not have a sword of gauntlet. I dread to think what they are like if the feet are this effective!

(Fantastic against vehicles or other Lords of War, is my impression, but the extra dice from the feet are usually better against anything else.)

Knights Turn 5

One Helverin realised he was too far out for anything useful and so setup camp in the deployment zone. The other bounded to the top of the corridor of death. 

Castellan stomped forward until his way was blocked; and using the shrine's speed boost the remaining Warglaive nipped to the corner.

He drew a bead through the Castellan's legs and took out the lone lascannon marine who was standing rear guard between the Chaos Lord and the newly arrived Helverin. 

Yep - bases don't block LoS, but models do. The Warglaive couldn't see either of the Greater Possessed, they were hiding behind the colossal shins of the Castellan!

With the human shield removed, the Helverin did not hesitate to mow down the Chaos Lord and a new warlord was crowned.

The Castellan eyed up the three remaining targets, split his fire accordingly and deleted both Possessed, leaving the lone obliterator on the board.  Which for good measure the Helverin charged. 

He actually did pretty well - the Helverin couldn't get through his armour, and he punched out a few wounds in return. Go Team Obliterator!

Objectives Scored - Slay the Warlord (1), Kingslayer (1)

Alpha Legion Turn 5

You know what? I stayed the course! Five full turns on the board, and I still had a footprint. A small one, possibly dwarfed into insignificance by those of my opponent, but I was still alive. 

Okay guys, let's talk this out.

The Obliterator stayed in combat with the Helverin, who he actually seemed to be overmatching in combat. The two wrestled inconclusively for a bit, then we played on into a last round. Here, Kas pulled the Helverin out to let the Warglaive (and Castellan) have a sporting chance to get wet, and that was very quickly game over on the sharp edge of a huge chainsword. Kas rolled up a few more victory points just to make sure, but all the signs pointed to a pretty clear result here!

Boom. Headshot.

Objectives scored - Honour of the House (1), Linebreaker (1) Defend 2 (2)

Result - 10:1 and a Tabling in favour of the Knights!

Locker Room

Welcome to the Kraken Fold, Alpha Legion! A long and glorious parade of such results awaits you!

Kas honestly seemed surprised at how this had gone, he was expecting me to be nipping ahead with Victory Points. But after the early death of the Rhino, I got bottled up in a corner that I couldn't escape from. Losing Secure Objectives hurt a bit, as did my general draw, which wanted me to run into the face of all the guns and grab the other side. But in all honesty, I don't think my army was really a strong contender against the Knights, I just didn't have the power at range to hurt them. They were faster than I realised too, able to hunt me down faster than I could run.

Quite fast anyway, but the Raven household was a nice boost to movement on the heavier weaponry. And yes I was surprised. I'd played elite lists before with few models and seen the game turn quickly as one model disappears a turn. I was also expecting the VP swing based on the number of units; not realising that we'd lose some cards.

Not that I couldn't have made it easier for myself, mind! I felt that putting my objective markers on the tops of buildings where Knights can't, for example, would have been unsporting. I won't be so gentle next time! And maybe I should have made use of the Alpha Legion's Forward Operatives strat to get an early advance in, too, or a Tide of Traitors to get a unit of Cultists in the backline for an early Behind Enemy Lines. I doubt any of that would have affected the end result! But it would have been smarter play. 

All the same - fun times. When the Knights finally come home to Kas, I'd love to run them against the powers of his T'au big suits. Although I hear Pootle is thinking of doing the same with the Death Guard, the crazy fool - good luck with that winning streak!

Bring it on!

(A couple of minor painting updates - I realised that I didn't stick any pics up of the Obliterators in my last post, even though they were done. So I slipped them in as my MVPs above. Smashing models, and I'm doing some more for Kas in a few weeks!)