Mind Over Melta: Thousand Sons vs Black Legion

Just a friendly disagreement in the Eye of Terror.

Thousand Sons vs Black Legion!

More heretics feuding, and once again I, Stylus, will not be fielding Thousand Sons. After his test run a few weeks ago, Rapid was keen to put his lessons into practice. So instead of a mirror-match, the Black Legion will be attempting to assert their authority.

Rapid Rubricae - Thousand Sons

Looking to build on my previous lessons... I decided to shake the list up a little.

The aim of this list was to sit back for the first few rounds and then break out. Swapping the Heldrake for the Defiler, giving me some back line support. The two Sorcerers were upgraded to Exalted, giving some rerolls and a Disc for mobility. I've been lucky with Spawn in the past and also appreciate how much of a wild card they are; they aren't to be ignored. 

3 squads of Rubrics all with the ability to use Sorcerer Facade, I'm hoping that they will be able to achieve some mobility. Cant leave home without Scarab Occult Terminators, 1 with a Hellfyre Missile rack for some extra punch.

Learning lessons on psychic powers, and attempting to avoid Smite spamming, the more offensive powers are given to the Rubrics and the buffs to the Sorcerers and Scarab Occult, as these will most likely stick together. High Magister to give +1 for further assistance in getting those buffs off and a Dark Matter Crystal to get the hell out of dodge when needed.

Battalion Detachment - Cult of Duplicity

• Exalted Sorcerer on Disc (HQ) (Warlord)
  Force Stave, Inferno Bolt pistol, Frag & Krak Grenades,
  Powers: Sorcerous Façade, Prescience, Weaver of Fates
  Warlord Trait: High Magister
  Relic: Dark Matter Crystal
• Exalted Sorcerer (HQ)
  Force Stave, Inferno Bolt pistol, Frag & Krak Grenades,
  Powers: Sorcerous Façade, Glamour of Tzeentch, Warptime
  
• 5 x Rubric Marines (Troop)
  Force Stave, Inferno bolt pistol, 4 x Inferno Boltgun
  Powers: Sorcerous Façade, Tzeentch's Firestorm
• 5 x Rubric Marines (Troop)
  Force Stave, Inferno bolt pistol, 4 x Inferno Boltgun
  Powers: Sorcerous Façade, Temporal Manipulation
• 5 x Rubric Marines (Troop)
  Force Stave, Inferno bolt pistol, 4 x Inferno Boltgun
  Powers: Sorcerous Façade, Doombolt
• 7 x Scarab Occult Terminators (Elite)
  Force Stave, 7 x Inferno Combi-Bolter, 6 x Power Sword, Hellfyre Missile Rack
  Powers: Sorcerous Façade, Glamour of Tzeentch
• 3 x Chaos Space (Fast)
  Hideous Mutations
• Defiler (Heavy)
  Battle cannon, Defiler claws, Reaper autocannon, Twin heavy flamer, combi-bolter

Points: 998 | Battle-forged + Battalion: 6 CPs 

The Unkindest Cut - Black Legion

There's been some updates to a lot of the standard weapons for marine armies (loyalist and heretic) and while I'm still waiting on that extra wound, I want to try out the new toys.

Accordingly I picked a fairly 'standard' chaos army - no cult marines or daemon engines, just lots of astartes, manoeuvrability and firepower. Aside from one missile launcher, my entire army is 24" range, so there's nothing for it but to get close and try to outgun or outfight the Thousand Sons. Strike hard, strike fast, no mercy!

Battalion Detachment

• Strato of The Cabal - Chaos Lord with Jump Pack (HQ) (Warlord)
  Chainsword, Combi-bolter
  Warlord Trait: Black-Clad Brute
  Relic: Ghorisvex's Teeth
• Varro Bloodearth - Exalted Champion (HQ)
  Power axe, Combi-melta
• 5 x Chaos Space Marines (Troop)
  Combi-plasma, plasma gun, 3 x boltguns
• 5 x Chaos Space Marines (Troop)
  Boltgun & Astartes chainsword, missile launcher, 3 x boltguns
• 8 x Chaos Space Marines (Troop)
  Power axe, 7 x Astartes chainsword & bolt pistols, Icon of Wrath
• Helbrute (Elite)
  Multi-melta, Helbrute fist
• Bikers (Fast)
  Power sword, 2 x melta guns, 2 x astartes chainswords
• 5 x Raptors (Fast)
  Power sword & plasma pistol, 2 x plasma guns, 2 astartes chainswords & bolt pistols
• Chaos Rhino (Transport)
  Combi-bolter

Points: 999 | Battle-forged: 6 CPs

Mission and Deployment

We're playing the Crossfire mission, which is a basically four-objective standard rules, with an odd twist that if you control both objectives outside the deployment zones, and a unit controlling one of those objectives is shooting at an enemy within 9" of the centre, they don't benefit from cover.

(No, I don't either)

I get to choose my deployment quarter and take the more open one, since I've got vehicles to manoeuvre. Since we've both got pretty mid-range armies, and mine is faster, I was torn between holding back out of range, or deploying close to the line and getting in some early pressure. I went with the aggressive option because, hey, we're Chaos.

The Raptors went into deepstrike, and the Bikers went on my extreme right flank. They'll inevitably have to cross the difficult ground of the craters, but with their turbo-boosted speed, it shouldn't matter too much.

My squad of plasma marines hid in the ruins, while the missile launcher squad took up a vantage point in the light cover of the upper floors (while their champion keeps a toe on the home objective). Representing my only long-range firepower, I don't see them moving all game.

The melee marines go into the Rhino, accompanied by my Exalted Champion, Varro Bloodearth. The Helbrute goes alongside him, with the Chaos Lord, Strato, supervising close behind (although I was very careful about how I placed him, since I knew the Cult of Duplicity could easily jump in a squad of Rubrics to gun him down).

 

Learning some lessons from the last game, the Scarab Occult had to be there from the start. Sat mostly on top of the ruined building roof, they have a good viewing platform to drop some hurt. The Defiler sits back a little to deny some deepstrike. 

A squad of Rubrics sit beneath the Scarab Occult to hold the point and shield their warlord who is behind. The second squad of rubrics go on top of the other building with an exalted sorcerer behind them for some re rolls. Sneakily, the spawn sit underneath them, cleaning their claws and other gribbly bits of vitae from the last victims.

 

 

Finally the third squad of Rubrics sit to the side, providing some deep strike shielding but also an opportunity to break out later.

Secondaries

The Thousand Sons secondary objectives were:

• Engage on All Fronts: 2VP to have units in three table quarters and 6" from the centre at the end of the turn. 3VP to have units in all four quarters 6" from the centre.
• Slay the Warlord: 6VP for killing my Chaos Lord
• While We Stand, We Fight: 5VP each if the top three units survive the battle (both Exalted Sorcerers and the Defiler)

The Black Legion secondary objectives were:

• Outflank: the mission-specific objective. 3VP for controlling both of the outside objectives at the end of the Command Phase, and 5VP if you control both and there is an enemy unit within 9" of the centre. It's not my favourite one, but I'm game for anything.
• Abhor the Witch: 3VP for killing a psyker unit, 5VP for killing a psyker character. The anti-Thousand Sons secondary
• Assassinate: 3VP for killing characters, which basically puts all my chips on abhorring the witch.

Turn 1 - Thousand Sons

 

My first turn was decidedly free of movement. My first cast of Prescience on the Defiler perils on a double 1. A CP to avoid the perils sees me move quickly on to the next power.

Weaver of Fates goes off on the Scarab Occult, no other powers manage to manifest themselves this turn. 

 

The Defiler piles his shots into the Helbrute, he plinks off a few wounds but nothing more. Out of range the Helbrute cannot fire back at anything. Instead he fires into the air showing his frustration.

Frustration indeed - I rolled a Crazed! result and could have lit them up with my multi-melta, if they'd only loved on inch closer. Serve me right for not taking lascannons.

All my other guns stay silent as they are not within range.

 

This wasn't a good start.

Objective secured: none

Thousand Sons 0 : 0 Black Legion

Turn 1 - Black Legion

Surviving the the first turn with just a couple of wounds to the Helbrute is better than I could have hoped. On the downside, that's one tough castle I have to assault.

There are points to be scored for holding the two middle objectives, but I'm not keen on splitting my meagre force. So I keep the missile squad in place and advance the plasma squad towards it, screened by the central ruins and hoping no-one notices them.

Everyone else pushes up on the right flank. The Rhino advances a long way up the field, having been volunteers as my Smite screen. The Bikers turbo-boost across the craters to claim one of the middle objectives, and the Helbrute walks into multi-melta range. Strato stays in the thick of it, revving his chainsword and adding his reroll aura.

I feel quite adrift skipping the Psychic Phase, but I press on. I'm keen to see the new improved rules for the multi-melta, and my Helbrute doesn't disappoint when he lands a double hit on the Defiler, knocking off seven wounds.

Despite advancing, the Black Legion trait allows my Bikers to fire their combi-bolters as assault weapons and, with no better targets (the Spawn are hiding), I put Veterans of the Long War on them and chip another wound off the Defiler.

Finally, the missile launcher from the back squad takes aim at the Defiler - it's a peach of a shot and the krak missile blows away the remaining six wounds. The daemon engine is destroyed!

That missile launcher has waited 30 years for it's first kill.

That was a good start for me. One serious threat has been neutralised, and I'm on two objectives ready to score them next turn. the drawback is most of my army is now in range of those infernal inferno boltguns.

Objective secured: none

Thousand Sons 0 : 0 Black Legion

Turn 2 - Thousand Sons

After that rather humbling - I say humbling. I mean crushing loss - of my big hitter. It's time to try and counterpunch. The Bikes are feeling the biggest threat at the moment and need, at the very least, reducing in numbers.

MMM meat, my Spawn come hurling out of the building towards the Bikers. There's some juicy meat behind that ceramite. Let's prise it out! 

 

My Spawn are hopefully going to do some work on these boys after further softening up by bolter fire.

 

 

Looking to stop the rhino in its tracks the Rubrics run out to greet it. My Smites soften up the Rhino further.

 

Two Bikers are taken out by the bolter fire from the rubrics. I play Infernal Fusillade to deal out double the shots from the Scarab Occult. With +1 to hit from Prescience it takes out two of the bikes.

The first round of Infernal Fusillade was aimed at the Helbrute - and it was already destroyed by the hellfyre missiles, so the 32 inferno combi-bolter shots just thumped into its carcass. In that regard, I was lucky all the fire was concentrated there.

 It's time for the Spawn to do some work!

 

And work they did! I play Fated Mutation to choose +2 attacks each. Attack after attack comes from the Spawn and the last Bikers are taken off the field. 

Uncharacteristically the Spawn decide to sit on the shiny objective, some slither of tactics still resides in their mutated and violent brains.

 

This was a great counterpunch, the Bikes really scared me and had to be removed. Stylus still has a the Rhino full of boys and his deepstrike units to further hit back.

Objective secured: Primaries (5)

Thousand Sons 5 : 0 Black Legion

Turn 2 - Black Legion

Ouch - Spawn are a lot less charming when they're eating up your own units. But my real fear is the Scarab Occult - I won't survive another round of shooting like that, so I'm forgetting the objectives for this turn and just make sure I reduce their numbers.

Accordingly, I drop the Raptors into the central ruins, in rapid-fire range of the Scarab Occult, and bring the remaining plasma marines into the ruins too. I fly Strato close enough to attempt a charge, while also offering rerolls of 1 to the Raptors, because I'm going to be overcharging!

Speaking of charging, Varro Bloodearth leads the melee squad out of the Rhino, leaving it to fight the Rubrics by itself. They're in a target-rich environment, so I position them to pick from either the Rubrics in the top floor ruin, or the Rubrics fighting the Rhino.

I guess the strategic play would have been to take on the Spawn, and guarantee an objective-secured unit on that objective, but I'm feeling aggressive, I'm here to kill psykers, and those Spawn scare me.

The shooting phase couldn't have gone better. I overcook the shots from the Raptors and Chaos Space Marines (using Let the Galaxy Burn to get rerolls on the rear squad, since they're out of aura range) and, despite Rapid boosting their invulnerable save with Indomitable Fires, I gun down four of the Scarab Occult Terminators. Bolt pistols from the melee marines account for a fifth one, and the trusty missile launcher takes out a sixth - just the aspiring sorcerer left!

The only downside is when my Chaos Lord loads a Daemon Shell to finish the job, but the daemon has other ideas and chomps two wounds from him instead.

Crucially, now that the squad has been reduced in size, it can no longer offer Look Out Sir! to the Exalted Sorcerer on Disc. The enemy warlord is exposed, and I have an Exalted Champion with a multi-melta and a bit of a reputation for this sort of thing.

Varro blasts the sorcerer, who fails his invulnerable save, and takes a whopping five wounds. It's quite a turning point as the witch melts into a puddle! (and Dorothy gets the shoes!)

Off to the Assault phase, and Varro jumps on the final Scarab Occult. With Ghorisvex's Teeth, the Sekhmet champion is despatched during the warm-up strokes.

My melee squad was eyeing up the other Exalted Sorcerer, but space would be so limited on that ruin, I doubt I would maximise attacks. So they about-turn and charge into the Rubric squad that was pestering their Rhino.

With the sheer volume of attacks, plus the new Astartes Chainsword, I'm able to tear down all five of the Rubrics and liberate my transport!

The only off-note is my Raptors, who succeed in making their long charge into the other Rubric squad, but utterly fail to make an impression against the All is Dust saves. To add to the ignominy, the Aspiring Sorcerer brings down two Raptors with his force stave.

My remaining forces are well committed, but I've made some serious inroads into the Thousand Sons' castle, plus a cheeky warlord kill and removal of the feared Scarab Occult.

I only score one primary, but rack up a bundle of secondaries with three psyker kills, including a character.

Objective secured: Primaries (5), Abhor the Witch (5+3+3), Assassinate (3)

Thousand Sons 5 : 19 Black Legion

Turn 3 - Thousand Sons

 

Oooff, well I wasn't expecting to lose the Scarab Occult and Warlord. Hindsight is a wonderful thing, I should have moved the warlord out of position last round. My lines need to be cleared, there is a lot going on and a push is needed.

 

"Tactics, who needs tactics, there's boys over the to rip up and eat!" My Spawn hurl themselves forward looking to charge. They push out some words, "Varro Blood.....".

 

Seeing his warlord fall to Strato, my Exalted Sorcerer advances forward, determined to get him close enough for some mind bullets. Unbelievably he Smites for 3 mortal wounds! Strato is dead!

 

 

To add insult to injury he uses Sorcerers Facade to move himself back to his original standing position. For me this feels quite like actual magic.. My dice rolling is actually going well this game.

 

My Rubrics smite off the final Raptors and hurl their bolter shots into the plasma squad, taking two down.

Actually the Rubrics went for broke and cast Tzeentch's Firestorm - and from the nine dice, rolled the three sixes needed to annihilate the Raptors! That freed up the Rubrics to shoot and was a deft touch of psychic.

 

The Rubrics still sat atop the building attempt a Doombolt into the melee squad but fail their cast. Its up to the Spawn to work some magic themselves. I play Fated Mutation again and choose the additional attacks. One Spawn goes into the Varro and the other two into the melee squad. 

Moments later they are licking the vitae from their claws and watching the twitching bodies slowly become motionless. Feeling left out the Rhino rams and takes 1 wound off the Spawn!

 

Objective secured: Primaries (5), Slay The Warlord (6)

Thousand Sons 16 : 19 Black Legion

Turn 3 - Black Legion

Just because I only have six heretic astartes and a Rhino left, doesn't mean it's all over...

I reverse the Rhino across the middle objective, staying within claiming distance, but if the Spawn want to contest it, they'll have to move away from my other units.

And if I want to stop the Spawn from outnumbering the objective, I'll have to remove a couple of them. the missile launcher takes out one of them, like the boss he is, and the Chaos Space Marine champion overcooks his combi-plasma in the hope of double-tapping a second one.

Sadly, even with Let the Galaxy Burn, he manages to misfire and blow himself up, only wounding one of the remaining Spawn.

I'm clinging onto a narrow lead by my heretical fingernails here.

Objective secured: Primaries (5)

Thousand Sons 16 : 24 Black Legion

Turn 4 - Thousand Sons 

 

Watching the Rhino withdraw, I send the Spawn after it. Already within objective range they have cancelled out the Rhinos hold. 

I advance the Exalted Sorcerer off the building once more and he is just within 3" of the objective. The Spawn charge into the Rhino and take off more wounds. That Rhino has taken a punishing today!

 

 

The Rubrics, still reeling from killing the Raptors use Sorcerers Facade to put themselves on the point and in range of the last squad. They open fire and take out 2 of the squad, 3 left!

 

Objective secured: Engage On All Fronts (2)

Thousand Sons 18 : 24 Black Legion

Turn 4 - Black Legion

I can see a path to victory! The last Exalted Sorcerer is exposed and, if my missile launcher climbs to the top of the ruin, he can try a Hail Mary shot. 

I'll need to inflict all five wounds in one shot, but it will gain me a psyker kill, assassinate and remove Rapid from an objective (and take away the points from his last While We Stand, We Fight unit). That should be enough to net me a highly-unlikely win,

The krak missile finds its mark. It wounds! It inflicts... three damage. And my dreams are ash.

Objective secured: Primaries (5)

Thousand Sons 18 : 29 Black Legion

Turn 5 - Thousand Sons

Leaving my Sorcerer out in the opening like that wasn't THE most clever thing done today. First call is moving him behind the building, he is no longer in sight of any nasty projectiles.

 

 

The other squad of Rubrics throw themselves forward with the Sorcerers Facade. Surrounding the final three Black Legionnaires.

 

They must be dizzy from the Psychic powers as they only manage to kill two. Leaving the Missile Launcher standing!

Objective secured: Primaries (15), Engage On All Fronts (3), While We Stand, We Fight (5)

Thousand Sons 36 : 29 Black Legion

Turn 5 - Black Legion

The Exalted Sorcerer is now very hidden on his end of the board (is his nervous about something?), so there's nothing for my heroic missile launcher guy to do but load his last krak missile, blow up a Spawn for good measure, and slip quietly away.

As that concludes the battle, the Exalted Sorcerer also brings in another 5VP for managing to survive the carnage.

Objective secured: none
Objective secured (Thousand Sons): While We Stand, We Fight (5)

Thousand Sons 41 : 29 Black Legion

Result: Victory to Thousand Sons!

Locker Room

Congratulations to Rapid on a deserved win. Compared to his last outing with Thousand Sons, he was a lot more prepared with his psychic powers and where they would be applied, which is the key to victory with this army. 

While the sheer firepower of the Scarab Occult is devastating, it's the little tricks like being able to Smite my enemy warlord, then Warptime back into safety, that made the difference (Strato was just getting warmed up - he could have butchered the enemy if left alone).

For myself, I had a great time. It was a refreshing change to have a 'no frills' army, since it gave me more things to play with, and a chance to grasp the basics. I surprised myself by not taking Khorne Berserkers, for example, but with the new chainsword, the Chaos Space Marines did the job (very often there is a lot of overkill left with Berserkers). And the multi-melta Helbrute, oft-maligned, may now be the best combination (grab those Dark Imperium sets while you can).

The one thing I really missed was not having a Psychic Phase. It was very thematic, and if I were facing Thousand Sons again, it's worth doing to play Abhor the Witch, but unlike Space Marines or AdMech, I feel that Chaos Space Marines lean on their psychic powers to perform at their best.

It was a fun match - and very instructive to see Thousand Sons being played on the other side of the table.

 

I thoroughly enjoyed this game, my first win in a while. Ive discovered some things about the way I prepare for a match. Having to plan the psychic powers has given me more insight into the overall strategy of a game. Hopefully this will assist me going forward to be a better player. Whilst I simply cannot dedicate myself to another army at the moment, Thousand Sons are an absolute blast to play!  

Thanks again to Stylus for hosting!