Never Send a Boy to do a Mantis' Job: Mantis Warriors vs Alpha Legion

In a break from our regularly-scheduled campaign - the Alpha Legion are at it again!

Hallowed Imperial relics have been discovered in the shattered remains of an ancient fortress. Early winter frosts have isolated the dig site, but as the Mantis Warriors move to secure the relics for their chapter, they discover a sinister truth. 

Could the relics have been placed there deliberately, as bait for a trap?

After nearly a year in my army stable, the Mantis Warriors have yet to achieve a single victory. There's been some close-run fights, some not-so-close ones. Surely this melee rush army can beat something, someday?

This losing streak has led to a challenge to any visiting generals - take up the Mantis Challenge. If you win, you get a prize. On hearing of this prize knightly call to arms, Stylus took it up like a shot!

Blame the Blood Raven in me. I can't turn down a challenge or a jackpot.

The Mantis With a Plantis - Space Marines

We're keeping the level at 1,250pts, so I can have some versatility in choosing my army (and don't have to stuff it with characters). That said, the theme is pretty much the same: bike and transports and a long wait until the Assault Doctrine kicks in.

No complaints there - I love the theme of the army and will be leaning as hard into the White Scars abilities as I can, starting with a smash captain on a bike. Backing him up will be a squad of bikers, (who I intend to combat squad), a Land Speeder Typhoon, a Rhino full of Tactical Marines and a Drop Pod full of Veterans (armed with all sorts of weapons - I wanted to go WYSIWYG so my inevitable victory couldn't be questioned). Also a Terminator Squad for a deepstrike surprise.

The only concession made to points was the squad of Primaris Intercessors and Lieutenant, but they're pretty handy, so at least I can shore up the backline.

Battalion Detachment - White Scars Successors

• Captain on Bike (HQ)(Warlord)
  Thunder hammer, Storm Shield, Twin boltgun
  Trait: Chogorian Storm
• Librarian (HQ)
  Bolt pistol, Force axe
  Relic: Mantle of the Stormseer
  Ride the Winds, Storm-wreathed
• Primaris Lieutenant (HQ)
  Bolt pistol, Master-crafted auto bolt rifle
• 5 x Intercessor Squad (Troops)
  Power fist, Bolt pistol, Bolt Rifle
• 5 x Tactical Squad (Troops)
  Sergeant: Chainsword, 3 x Boltguns, Missile launcher
• 5 x Tactical Squad (Troops)
  Sergeant: Chainsword, combi-flamer, 3 x Boltguns, Heavy bolter
• 5 x Company Veterans (Elite)
  Sergeant: Thunder hammer & bolt pistol, 2 x Lightning Claws, Power Sword & Storm Shield, 2 x Chainswords, Boltgun & Chainsword
• 6 x Terminator Squad (Elite)
  Sergeant: Power Sword & Storm Bolter, 5 x Power Fist & Storm Bolter
• 5 x Bike Squad + Attack Bike (Fast)
  3 x Twin boltgun, plasma gun, meltagun, heavy bolter (attack bike)
• Land Speeder (Fast)
  Heavy bolter, Typhoon missile launcher
• Drop Pod (Transport)
  Storm bolter
• Rhino (Transport)
  Storm bolter

Points: 1250 | Level: 76 | Battle-forged + Battalion = 8 CPs

Alphalldown - Chaos Space Marines

The Alpha Legion is probably the strongest house army that I have right now. They've had a pretty good run of wins, so I was surprised when Stylus picked them as his opponents for the Mantis Challenge. I guess if you beat this lot, you certainly make your mark!

I Am Alpharius is a hilarious trait, and some of the Alpha's relics are amazing. But I eschewed the obvious choices, and decided to try something a little different. This is to capitalize on the excellent strategems by doing a little CP farming. 

Servants of the Abyss, the Blackstone traitor cultists, are cheap. And crap! But also cheap, so I took a full battalion, led by MC Hammer himself, Obsidius Mallex. These guys do have a couple of interesting bits of gear, like grenades and marginally better armour than real cultists. That doesn't mean I expect much from them other than a swift death, but look at all those juicy CPs...

Two of which I blow immediately on an extra relic and warlord trait. So we've got a hard-to-hit Daemon Prince with a crazy axe, and a Master of Possession who can boost a few extra cultists and has a CP-burning vox, just to really annoy Stylus. 

The rest of the Alpha battalion is small, cheap units, with the twin exceptions of the ever-overpowered Termite Drill and a shooting block of ten Noise Marines. There are so many possible shenanigans I can pull with this lot that I'm actually going into battle with no real plan beyond pulling said shenanigans. Hope that works! 

Battalion & Vanguard Detachment - Alpha Legion

• Daemon Prince with Wings (HQ) (Warlord)
  Daemonic axe
  Warlord trait: Clandestine
  Relic: Ul'o'cca, the Black Axe,
  Psychic Power: Warptime
• Master of Possession
  Bolt pistol, Force stave, Frag & Krak grenades
  We Are Alpharius: Cult Leader
  Relic: Hydra's Wail
  Cursed Earth, Sacrifice
• 10 x Chaos Cultists (Troops)
  Autoguns
• 6 x Chaos Space Marines (Troops)
  Bolt pistol and chainaxe, 4 x bolt pistols and chainswords, meltagun
• 6 x Chaos Space Marines (Troops)
  Combi-flamer, 4 x boltguns, autocannon
• Greater Possessed (Elite)
  Daemonic Mutations
• Greater Possessed (Elite)
  Daemonic Mutations
• Helbrute (Elite)
  Helbrute fist, Reaper autocannon
• 10 x Noise Marines (Elite)
  Power maul, 8 x Sonic Blasters, 2 x Blastmasters
• Terrax-Pattern Termite Assault Drill (Transport)
  Melta cutter, Termite Drill

Battalion Detachment - Servants of the Abyss

• Obsidius Mallex (HQ)
  Plasma pistol, Thunder hammer, Frag & Krak grenades
• Traitor Commissar (HQ)
  Bolt pistol, power fist
• 7 x Cultists of the Abyss (Troops)
  4 x Autoguns, 1 x heavy stubber, 1 x grenade launcher, 1 x champion with stub carbine and chainsword
• 7 x Cultists of the Abyss (Troops)
  3 x lasguns, 2 x autopistol & brutal assault weapon, 1 x flamer, 1 x sergeant with chainsword
• 7 x Cultists of the Abyss (Troops)
  3 x lasguns, 2 x autopistol & brutal assault weapon, 1 x flamer, 1 x sergeant with chainsword

Points: 1250 | Level: 80 | Battle-forged + Battalion +  Battalion -1 Extra Relic -1 Extra Trait = 11 CPs

Mission and Deployment

It's back to the frosty wastes, with a huge ruined castle and fort network splitting the board. Scattered woods and bogs give cover, but the bulk of the LOS blocks are along the middle. 

For fun, we played that vehicles could smash their way through doorways or suitable low sections of wall for a cost of 2" of movement, just so Rhinos and such had a better range of movement. 

The mission is a bog standard Schemes of War, but no pre-cooked decks and our usual house rules of being allowed to redraw Domination and Priority Orders Received. 

With the Objectives out as shown, Stylus won the dice-off and picked to Attack. So I chose the north corner with a Search and Destroy deployment zone, and he set out first with the choice of who took first turn. 

My board presence was pretty minimal: Tactical Squads into the Rhino, surrounded by the Captain, Bike Squads and Land Speeder. The Intercessors and Lieutenant hung back on Objective 3 and the Drop Pod took the Veterans and Librarian into deepstrike, along with the Terminators.

Knowing I'm unlikely to out-drop the drop pods, termies and so forth, I decide to go with everything on the table to start out. The Master of Possession takes his cultists and a Greater Possessed into the Termite, which goes in the front corner, backed by the DP and Helbrute. 

Obsidius has his stupid deployment rule that means all his mates have to be within 6" of him (why? have they all teleported in together from the Blackstone, is that it?), so they camp across Objective 2 in the ruins. All the Chaos Marines hide behind skull mountain, and the Noise Marines perch atop it on account of the nice view (and protection from biker charges). 

With no deepstrikers to worry about, and limited range on the Alpha Legion guns, I try to wrong-foot them by letting them have the first turn.

I possibly shouldn't have deployed right on the edge of my deployment zone with this in mind. But if I'd held back, it might have given the game away (arggh! the Alpha Legion mind games have started!)

Alpha Legion - Turn 1

Objectives Drawn - Secure Objective 6, Claim and Despoil, Defend Objective 5

The Objective draw isn't great, but it could be worse. Most of mine are killy ones like Blood and Guts, best saved for later. So I slap out Secure Objective 6 (should manage that, it's under all the Noise Marines), Claim and Despoil (take one of their Objectives) and A Hidden Mystery, and get on with it. 

First job - screen the back line. Cultists, traitors and renegades of various stripes run in all directions, blocking out pretty much all of my deployment zone, but leaving characters around in response positions. Noise Marines shift slightly forward, the autocannon guys slog out round the corner of the hill and the Helbrute runs screaming madly forward like the tactical genius he is. 

Next, the Daemon Prince advances up to the Termite, so he can then later Warp Time it over on to Objective 5 for NO REASON WHATSOEVER WHAT MYSTERY OBJECTIVE DO YOU MEAN?

This done, shooting starts well. The Noise Marines ding a chunk off the Land Speeder, and wound a bike with their sonic blasters. I really don't fancy being targeted by twin missiles, so with a swift Endless Cacophony, they rinse and repeat this, taking it down. 

Quite hard, in fact - the Sabotage strat detonates the Land Speeder, killing the wounded biker and leaving a mark on the Rhino. First Blood! 

Objectives Scored - First Strike (1), Secure Objective 2 (1)

Alpha Legion 2 : 0 Mantis Warriors 

Mantis Warriors - Turn 1

Objectives Drawn - Secure Objective 4, Assassinate, Run Them Down

Not a great start for me, and my objective cards don't help either. In my first draw, all the cards required me to seize or defend objectives on the other side of the board. So I took the mulligan and ended up with a slightly more palatable draw.

Getting onto Objective 4 is fine with my speed. I briefly considered a suicidal charge against the Daemon Prince for Assassinate, but decided to stick to my plan of racing around one flank of the castle, and hopefully keeping out of reach of that Termite Drill.

Run Them Down is a White Scars-specific stratagem that requires me to kill something with a unit that advanced. This puzzles me until Kraken points out that's where White Scars excel. So I race all my vehicles around to the north of the castle, grabbing Objective 4 and ensuring the nearest Cultists are in range.

The Lieutenant runs forward onto Objective 1, in case it turns up, and the Intercessors hang back on Objective 3 and wish a new edition would come out that gives Primaris bikes.

Shooting is brisk and efficient. Most of my army advanced, but with the Born In The Saddle stratagem, one unit of Bikes can still shoot, and they gun down every Cultist before them.

So that scores me a total of 3 VP, at which point, Kraken reveals Defend Objective 5 and pulls back into the lead.

Objectives Scored: First Strike (1), Run Them Down (1) and Secure Objective 4 (1)

Objectives scored (Alpha Legion): Defend Objective 5 (2)

Alpha Legion 4 : 3 Mantis Warriors 

Alpha Legion - Turn 2

Objectives Drawn - Claim and Despoil, Secure Objective 1, Witch Hunter

The new Objectives in play are a new Mystery, and Secure Objective 1. That lone Lieutenant looks tempting for Claim and Despoil, so the Termite drives straight for him, making a woodland rendezvous with the Daemon Prince and his warp time. 

"It's just a jump to the left."

This goes according to plan. Elsewhere, I spread out a bit to improve my slightly-dented deep strike denial bubble, but generally keep pretty still. The only exception is the Autocannon squad, who spend another CP to sneak back off into hiding with the Renascent Infiltration strat. 

This means I can't shoot much, and what I do try doesn't achieve much. Even the Termite's meltas can only inflict relatively weak damage to the Rhino, but I do bolter a wound off the rather nervous Lieutenant as a starting point. 

"I get the point."

The Termite then charges in, and the combat goes exactly as you'd expect. As the Primaris Lieutenant examines the extremely neat cross-channel tunnel in his abdomen, I roll well for Claim and Despoil, and lengthen my early lead. 

Objectives Scored: Secure Objective 1 (1), Claim and Despoil (3)

Alpha Legion 8 : 3 Mantis Warriors

Mantis Warriors - Turn 2

Objectives Drawn - Assassinate, Behind Enemy Lines, Claim Their Heads

Yikes, that was a big swing, and I'm going to have to chase every victory point to catch up. Fortunately, the cards are helping me out this time - Claim Their Heads awards 1 VP per enemy character slain, and there are a few of them on the board. There's also D3 for getting three units into the enemy deployment zone, and I have lots of speed on my side.

However, my brain also got a little scrambled here (blame it on the Alpha Legion) and I became convinced that I needed Objective 1. I did have the card in my draw (but unplayed) or maybe I thought Kraken was trying to Defend it. Either way, I disembarked one Tactical Squad for the totally pointless suicide mission of trying to take the objective off the Termite Drill.

The FUBAR doesn't end there, as I drop in the Terminators (aiming for a juicy shot at the soft underbelly of Cultists and characters) only to be told that the Scrambled Coordinates stratagem pushes out my deepstrike to 12".

With no plum choices, I drop them outside the deployment zone to shoot and charge their way back into the action.

With more organisation, the Biker Captain leads the Rhino and Bikes around to take on the Chaos Space Marines and - suddenly quite exposed - Obsidius Mallex.

Considering I mostly had bolter weaponry to work with, the Shooting Phase isn't too bad. Another unit of Cultists are shredded by Biker fire, and Mallex himself is killed by a melta shot.

The Terminators really want to unleash bolter hell upon the Noise Marines, but Kraken dips into his limitless pool of CP and plays Conceal, meaning I can't target them. The Helbrute is my consolation prize and, with Fury of the First in play, I knock off six of his wounds (this is my first experience of playing combat doctrines, and I love it!).

In the Assault Phase, the Terminators go first, using the Fierce Rivalries stratagem to boost their charge distance and pulp the nearest Cultists (just out of range of the Greater Possessed, who declines to intervene).

On the subject of one-sided massacres, one of the Tactical Marines falls to the Termite Drill's Overwatch, but it matters not - as long as I have one surviving at the end, he can claim the objective (despite me not needing to). I guess he can also prevent the Drill from advancing out of combat, so there would be some small purpose served.

But it is not to be - the Termite Drill outperforms itself and slays the entire squad. Sorry boys!

Back to the main thrust of my attack, all the bikes roll very high to cross the tiny distance to the Chaos Space Marine squad (save those charge rolls!) and completing surround them.

Combat is slightly more embarrassing, as their combined attacks (including my warlord!) manage to leave one heretic still on his feet.

At least I manage to wrap around him, to avoid taking fire next turn - until the sneaky bugger fails his morale check and disappears!

And so ends a turn of ups and down, punctuated when I only roll 1 for my D3 Victory Points for Behind Enemy Lines.

At least I've cleared my hand for the next turn.

Objectives Scored: Assassinate (1), Behind Enemy Lines (1), Claim Their Heads (1)
Alpha Legion 8 : 6 Mantis Warriors

Alpha Legion - Turn 3

Objectives Drawn - Witch Hunter, Secure Objective 2, No Prisoners

Thank goodness that Champion ran! This leaves the bikers rather squarely in my sights. Everything that can rushes to surround them, the exceptions being the Termite passengers (who all pop out and head for the Primaris guys) and the lone Greater Possessed, who sets his many jaws manfully and faces down the Terminators. 

To help him a bit, I stick the Autocannon Alphas back on Objective 2, but really that's because I've just played it as a secure objective. My other new card is No Prisoners, which I feel good about in such a target rich environment.

It all goes pretty well. The Rhino takes a Smite from the Deamon Prince before getting Blastmastered; the Tactical Marines who pop out make for a good screen, and despite my best efforts, I can't quite shoot them all away even with a second round of Endless Cacophony on the Noise Marines. 

The last melta bike dies, at least, but everything else is still going strong. At least until the charge phase. 

It's the Termite who does good here, one-shotting the entire plasma bike squad in melee. The plucky Tacticals manage to soak incoming from the Helbrute and the Traitor Commissar, but that's curtains for them. 

The Captain opts not to Intervene (wisely), as was declared on and doesn't want to be bitten by a Helbrute early. At least the Daemon Prince fails an easy charge, or that could have been very nasty!

Elsewhere, the Greater Possessed whiffs entirely against the Terminators before getting very emphatically dispossessed of life and limb. I forgot we were already in the Assault Doctrine turns!

Yes - I thought for a moment my Terminators had fallen just short, then we remembered the Doctrine change, and another wound sprang out of nowhere!

And the Intercessors interrupt combat to try and punch out their Greater Possessed, but their Sergeant is clearly not concentrating. All his squad mates die, taking a mere couple of cultists and a pair of wounds off the Greater Possessed, but he does nothing. He at least rides his armour on to a second round of fight, though.

The Intercessor Sargent was shocking. I spent 2CP to interrupt combat and try to take out the Greater Possessed, and then another to reroll the dice when all his power fist attacks fell short. Give me Space Wolves with power fists any day!

Objectives scored: No Prisoners (2), Secure Objective 2 (1)

Alpha Legion 11 : 6 Mantis Warriors

Mantis Warriors - Turn 3

Objectives Drawn - Master the Warp, Defend Objective 2, Mounted Assault

I'm starting to regret putting all my units into that kill-box, but there is still a way out of this, My Librarian is about to come in on the Drop Pod, the Terminators are close to Objective 2, and my Captain just needs to kill something - and if that something is a Daemon Prince, I get another point for the Warlord!

With my plans afoot, the Drop Pod lands north of the Termite Drill, and everyone disembarks for a multi-charge on everything.

I was wary of firing too many Stormbolters into the newly-arrived Chaos Space Marines, for fear of lengthening their charge, but I needed have bothered, as only two of them fall to the fusilade.

Shooting from the Drop-Pod and Veterans is no better, as the Traitor Commissar appears to live a charmed life and avoids all their shots.

But enough of shooting - we're here for the close-combat! The Veterans make a series of charges against the Termite Drill, Helbrute and incredibly-lucky Commissar, as they had the fortitude to bring different types of weapons to deal with them all.

Even with the Ride the Winds psychic power and Fierce Rivalries stratagem, they only just manage the charge - but the five brave warriors are now engaged along the entire front.

And what work they do! The Thunder Hammer Veteran smashes up the Termite Drill, the dual-Chainsword Veteran chops up the Traitor Commissar, and the Power Sword Veteran runs through the Helbrute. Perfect efficiency! (which I'd had No Prisoners in my hand!)

The Terminators are a bit more lead-footed, and I have to spend my last command point to get them to cross the meagre 4" charge distance. Although when they get there, the Chaos Space Marines are pulverised and Objective 2 securely in my hands.

Al that remains is for my warlord to round off the turn with a heroic charge - except he whiffs pathetically against the Daemon Prince. A combination of the Clandestine warlord trait, and the Thunder Hammer penalty, means the heretic is left without a scratch, and he duly tears my Captain down to his last wound.

My Intercessor Sergeant does managed to kill the Greater Possessed before being pulled down, but I', in trouble here. The warlord's failure has cost me 2VP (and I sense is about to surrender another in the wrong direction). I've done some serious damage, but only claim 1 VP this turn.

Objectives scored: Master the Warp (1)

Alpha Legion 11 : 7 Mantis Warriors

Alpha Legion - Turn 4

Objectives Drawn - Witch Hunter, Assassinate, Rise To Glory

Those Veterans must die! That was a mighty display of prowess, I can't afford another one. The Noise Marines flick a lot of switches and pump up the noise, as the Master of Possession takes his cult north towards the enemy Librarian. 

Shooting is almost total bust, sadly! The Blastmasters take out a pair of Terminators, true, but I was counting on 24 sonic blaster shots from the Noise Marines to be able to wipe out the Veterans. 16 wounds through ought to do it, you'd think, but no! Amazingly, only a single one goes down, as they all hide behind the Storm Shield guy. 

This means the Daemon Prince goes in for them. He's already scored this round, smiting the Captain off his bike, and now charges forward and massacres the remaining four Veterans. 

The Storm Shield immediately failed, and I never rolled above a 2 for the rest of their saving throws. It seemed their luck ran out, which was a shame, because I wanted to see if that Thunder Hammer sergeant could succeed where his boss failed.

All well and good, but it does leave him rather isolated and in plain view of the Terminators...

Score-wise, I'm still ahead and still ticking up. There's the Mystery objective that's been hanging about for ages, but Assassinate and For the Dark Gods are both claimed. 

Objectives Scored: Slay the Warlord (1), Assassinate (1), For the Dark Gods! (1)

Objectives scored (Mantis Warriors): Defend Objective 2 (2)

Alpha Legion 14 : 9 Mantis Warriors

Mantis Warriors - Turn 4

Objectives Drawn - Advance, Defend Objective 3, Secure Objective 4

The Card Gods giveth, and take away. I already secure Advance, since I have nothing left alive in my deployment zone, and the Librarian advances to secure Objective 4. Whereas Objective 3 is being held by a dead Intercessor Sergeant, so I'll ditch that at the end of my turn.

The Librarian manages a Smite on the Master of Possession (he was closest, despite the map), taking away three wounds.

But the real action is the Terminator Squad against the Daemon Prince - surely even he couldn't survive that barrage of power fists? We'll never know, as they fail another easy charge and are left standard in front of him.

I'm clawing back the points, but I'm in trouble here.

Objectives scored: Advance (1), Secure Objective 4 (1)

Alpha Legion 14 : 11 Mantis Warriors

Alpha Legion - Turn 5

Objectives Drawn - Witch Hunter, Blood and Guts, For the Dark Gods

More relatively easy objectives to achieve, plus my long-held Mystery still in play. Blood and Guts isn't going to get me a lot, but I ought to achieve it. And Defend 2 goes with it quite well, as sure enough, the Daemon Prince murders the last of the Terminators before sloping forward to grab it.

(It was actually For The Dark Gods this turn - 1VP for destroying the Terminators - and then you Defended 2 next time. Everything fell into place.)

The Noise Marines help out a bit, using my last CP to become Veterans of the Long War and punch a lot of holes in the Drop Pod. And the Master of Possession is still trucking north, but a bit more carefully now, using a proper cultist screen like they teach in Chaos HQ Tactical School. 

Objectives Scored: Blood and Guts (1), For the Dark Gods (1)

Alpha Legion 16 : 11 Mantis Warriors

Mantis Warriors - Turn 5

Objectives Drawn - Hold The Line, Area Denial, Psychological Warfare

So I can't hold the line, and those Noise Marines have a toe in the centre of the battlefield, so there's nothing to be done but for the Librarian to charge into the Cultists with stormbolter and mind bullets blazing.

Amazingly, this works and only one Cultist is left alive, who promptly fails his morale check.

So that's another VP for me, but I can't see many more in my future. That said, I've been in this position with a final Thousand Sons Sorcerer before and clawed my way out, so there's always hope.

Objectives Scored: Psychological Warfare (1)

Alpha Legion 16 : 12 Mantis Warriors

Alpha Legion - Turn 6

Objectives Drawn - Witch Hunter, The Warp Is Your Ally, Defend Objective 2

Nothing like seeing a last, lone psyker devastate your advantage in numbers, is there? It's a quiet turn from me, though. The Daemon Prince snipes a lone wound off the Drop Pod with Smite, mostly to score The Warp is Your Ally, then the Noise Marines impressively fail to finish it off. Presumably they're just posing and riffing up there, now. 

Objectives Scored: The Warp is Your Ally (1)
Alpha Legion 17 : 12 Mantis Warriors

Mantis Warriors - Turn 6

Objectives Drawn - Area Denial, Defend Objective 1, Secure Objective 3

That's all folks. My Librarian is heading back to the Drop Pod to see if it has a reverse gear.

Objectives Scored (Alpha Legion): Defend Objective 2 (2)
Alpha Legion 19 : 12 Mantis Warriors

Result: 19:12 - victory to the Alpha Legion

Locker Room

That was a bloody and well-fought battle! With different objectives drawn, the Mantis Warriors could very easily have taken the day, but it just wasn't quite to be.

I was probably too gung-ho about racing forward into the fray - I blame the thunder hammer biker captain, it's such a good conversion, it influences how I play him.

I evened out with lucky charges and appalling ones, but I think the difference was that Kraken held together a tight battle plan, and mine was bit all over the place, trying to smash what I could, when I could. Congrats on the win, sorry I couldn't make your Mantis Warriors great yet.

The Alpha Legion can certainly mess with your day no end if they have a lot of CPs. Even if Mallex and his Merry Men vanished like the dew in the morn to absolutely no effect on the field, the stratagems I could fling about definitely turned the tide in my favour. This list works well, I'd say, and it was also nice to play some of the Blackstone stuff in the game. Traitor Guard are a great substitute for Cultists, that extra point of armour is worth the loss of bodies for holding backfield objectives.

I thought you played the stratagems very well - especially the Alpha Legion specific ones. They were really messing with what I needed to achieve, with is exactly what they should be doing.

The Termite really was a pain in the butt, I can see that. It's bossed its way through a few games now, I'm rather hoping to see it get its comeuppance at some point. It's also clearly undercosted for those batty Forge World rules! Personally, I shall likely make a house-rule that shaves off a pair of attacks for future use. One from profile, and one from Hateful Assault, because who thought repurposed drills ought to get that? Daft!

I think the issue is the reliability of the Drill hitting - it's a big powerful tool, but it shouldn't be able to out-fence an Astartes. As a subterranean Rhino, I like it, and I hope it evens out in the next edition, because it should have a place on the table (or under it!).

Smashing game as always, and the Mantis Challenge is still on the table for another day!