12 May 2015

BatRep Relictors Vs Imperial Knights and Grey Knights - 1850pts

Hello Readers, well after that 4000pt 3-way Superheavy Smash Up, Lord Halfpenny and I had a normal batttle, a little smaller than the previous, the standard 1850pts in order to test out his BlogWars list for the 'From the Fang' upcoming friendly tournament. 6thDegree and Lord Halfpenny will be attending again this year, so 100% attendance from the Weemen! I've personally managed 1... and again will be out of the country for this one too.

Anyway, back to the matter at hand, it was a BlogWars scenario, Purge the Xenos, Hammer and Anvil Deployment, points awarded for destruction of units, 50% points for units over 50% damaged/lost and this was converted to VPs at the end with a maximum 30VPs, plus 1VP for each Slay Warlord, First Strike (First Blood in either first turn) and Linebreaker.

The Relictor force comprised of Marneus Relicgar (Calgar), a Termie Assault Squad in Landraider Godhammer, 3 Grav Centurions, 3 Attack Bikes with MM, a Squad of Scouts with ML, a Tac Sqd with ML, a 10 man Tac Squad with Grav/Combi Grav and two Stormtalons armed with Skyhammer Missiles and TL Assault Cannons - the Knights have no AA.

The Knights force had a Senschal Paladin Knight, a Paladin Knight and an Errant Knight, along with Draigo, Dreadknight with Gatling Psilencer, 5 GK Terminator Squad and a GK Termie Librarian. Small but hard hitting.
Relictors Turn 1 - the Relictors moved up, Grav Centurions out of range, 3 Attack Bikes moved up to fire on the Knight Senschal, two MM were in range and struck the Knight, but double 1 was rolled so both failed to damage (over half distance). Marneus Relicgar orbital bombard was the only damage, leaving Knight Errant on 5HPs, a Terminator also caught in the blast made his invulnerable save. Krak missiles, Landraider Lascannons and Razorback Lascannon all failed to damage the Knights. A poor opening turn.
GK and IK Turn 1 - the GK force rolled for Psychic winds, 5 dice pool plus 5 more from units and promptly Gate of Infinity towards the Relictor back lines, however a mishap occurred and they materialised within a ruined building, one taking a wound but saving. All three Imperial Knights moved up. The Dreadkhight Gatling Psilencer, emboldened with 'Force' slew one of the Grav Centurions, another was wounded by IK Battlecannon blasts, the Senschal opened fire with Battlecannon and Heavy Stubbers wiping out all three Attack Bikes, the heavy stubber bypassing the Power Armour twice with rolling double ones giving 'First Strike'! The Errant Thermal Cannon glanced the Landraider Godhammer down to 3HPs.
Relictor Turn 2 - The Grav Centurions returned fire on the Dreadknight, wiping him out. The Landraider moved toward the Errant, Ion Shield saving the Lasscannon and MM shots, disgorging its cargo of Thunderhammer Terminators who charged the Errant, striking him in the knees and reducing to 2HPs but losing one of their number. The Razorback again hit the Senschal Knight but the Ion Shield saved again. Krak missiles slammed into the wounded Knight Errant, but failed to penetrate the thick armour.

Knights Turn 2 - Imperial Knights all move up, Draigo's Gate of Infinity is successful after a perils roll of 1 and successful leadership so just wounding Draigo once, into the back lines of the Relictor force. The Knight Paladin battlecannons the Centurions but fails to bypass their armour. Heavy stubbers hit five times but fail to damage. The Knight Senschal Battlecannon shots wipe out 6 Tac marines in the centre but charges Marneus and totally destroys him with 11 'D' hits so no saves! This gives the Knight force 'Slay the Warlord'. 3 Thunderhammer Termies locked in combat with the Knight Errant fall to his stomp attacks and Reaper Chainsword. The GK force open up Storm Bolter fire on the wounded Tac Squad in the centre killing another two, leaving just the Grav weapon marine and Sergeant.
Relictor Turn 3 - Seeing the Knights bearing down on them, and seeing their commander wiped out the force holds its ground and concentrates efforts on the GK force in it's backfield. The single arrived Stormtalon, Grav Centurions, Grav Tactical marines and Razorback with Las/Plas wipe out Draigo and his squad, Draigo falling to Stormtalon Assault cannon fire, nice, gaining 'Slay the Warlord'. The Landraider who had turned to aid the force against the GK force had limited targets left, so shot the Knight Paladin but failed again to damage the Imperial Knights - Lascannons doing nothing so far this game. Locked in combat, the remaining Terminator Sergeant got stomped, Knight Errant remaining on 2HPs.

Imperial Knight Turn 3 - The Knight Errant shot the Centurions but missed, the Knight Paladin targeted the same Centurions with the Battlecannons but failed to get through the armour. The remaining Knight Senschal hit the Razorback and a Scout. The Knight Errant charged the Landraider Godhammer destroying it with Reaper Chainsword and a Stomp! The Knight Paladin charged the remaining two Tac Marines in the centre and squished them both. The Senschal failed his charge range against the Grav Centurions, their overwatch fire missed 10 times.
Relictors Turn 4 - Krak Missile fire from Tac Marines and Scouts bounce off the thick armour of the Errant, however the second Stormtalon arrives and shot the Knight Errant, bringing him down with Skyhammer Missiles and Assault Cannon shots.
The second Stormtalon used his Assault Cannon on the Knight Paladin taking two HPs. The Grav Centurions fire at the same Paladin glancing 4 times but the Ion Shield saves 3 times reducing the Knight to 3HPs. The Las/Plas Razorback fails to damage the Senschal.
Imperial Knight Turn 4 - The Knight Senschal shoots the hiding marines in the rear ruins killing 3 of 5 and rakes the scouts with the Heavy Stubber but the Scout Armour holds firm - the Knight then charges the Scouts in the Chapel of Sanctuary ruins and destroys them underfoot, the Knight Paladin charges the Razorback and Grav Centurions in a disorganised charge failing to damage the Razorback but squishes both Centurions with the Reaper Chainsword and a stomp!
Relictors Turn 5 - The Stormtalons separate to get around the Ion Shields of the remaining two Knights, the Razorback fires Las/Plas again, failing with the Lascannon and glances with the Plasma Gun, but again it is absorbed by the Ion Shield! The Stormtalons both open fire on the Knight Paladin on 2HPs and destroy him leaving just the Knight Senschal.
Imperial Knight Turn 5 - The Senschal destroys the Razorback in CC and roll is made for a sixth turn but it ends.
Siph - A great fun battle and surprisingly close run thing overall with the GK/IK Force on 28VPs with 'Slay the Warlord', 'LineBreaker' and 'First Strike' and the Relictors a close second after the first two turns it looked over, but with 25VPs with 'Slay the Warlord'. A bloody battle with the only survivors being a Knight Senschal and two Relictor Stormtalons and two marines. A sixth turn may have been interesting as both Stormtalons could of seriously hurt the Knight to no reply, but alas.

The Draigo/Libby/GK terminator Squad after one Mishap and a Perils of the Warp managed to kill 2 Tac Marines! And Marneus Relicgar managed to take 1HP off a Knight. Both Warlords potentially being the game's big hitters but failing in this instance and did squat all. Every Lascannon failed to damage anything all game. The Imperial Knights again proved to be a hard nut to crack, but towards the end, concentrated fire started to bring them down one at a time, I think that is the key - it's better to have two knights on 6HPs each dealing out damage than all three wounded Knights with ranged fire and 'D' Weapons in CC!

Lord Halfpenny - Great battle, I really wanted to see how the force would cope with a list Siph would have put together for BW- the force faired well, with the Knights running through the Relictors force. It'll be interesting to see how Knights change with their new codex and some AA support from the Wardens.

Best of luck to Lord Halfpenny and 6thDegree at June's BlogWars 9.

13 comments:

  1. Nice report.
    I keep reading how blog wars is a nice friendly event that discourages nasty lists, then I see people are taking lists with 3 Imperial Knights in them. I've put together quite a mild white scars list for the event. I played a couple of practice games at the weekend against a friend's army with a single Knight and I couldn't put a dent on it, while it went around stomping all over most of my army.

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  2. Corrm, his list was nowhere near a 'nasty' list, yes tough nut for some armies to crack, but Lance shots or MCs or Grav or Necron Gauss or any Haywire deals great damage to Knights and he loses a big chunk of points in the process. If my MM Attack Bikes did their job, the process would have been easier! He just rolled a lot of 4+ Ion shield saves!

    14 Necron Warriors and a Haywire Cryptek dropping in from a Scythe would down a Knight a turn.

    Top tip for you - take Grav Weapons and MM bikes if it is a WhiteScar bike army - some would say that is a fast hard hitting nasty list too... Grav weapons rock!

    His list is by no means the most balanced, on that I agree. I prefer (as you do, i think) the ideal of the old FOC, HQ, Troops with support elements, like a 'real' force would be, but alas we are in the GW over-drive OP days now.

    BlogWars is defo a friendly scene. Alex might yet temper his list, it's not yet approved.

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  3. Oh, and StormTalons! They rock, and he has no counter! 3 Skyhammer and 4 TL Assault Cannon rending shots a turn each, or Lascannon, they did great work and will fit your WhiteScars aesthetic of fast, nimble, fluffy force! :)

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  4. I had a practice game at the weekend against a Death Guard army with an allied Imperial Knight. Despite having massed melta weapons, meltabombs, grav guns and a stormtalon in my list, I only managed to do two hull points damage over the course of 4 turns, while the knight stomped and shot away about half my army. My luck was terrible during the game and my opponent made a lot of shield saves, but I was hard pressed to do any damage against it.

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  5. its sounds like you were very unlucky with your recent battle.

    in the past I've always gone with a 'friendly' list, or one designed around the background- BW 3 I went with a Khorne daemon list only- which wasn't a tactical force, rather I wanted to run a single chaos god list.

    I perfer running more than 1 Knight for the single reason that it makes the opposition question him/herself for what to do next.

    The reason I've gone for 3 knights is as Alex allowed it- I'm sure there will be a load of Eldar with D weapons flying around, and I know that 6thdegree is running quite a nasty list- in a recent battle with my list against his only a single obilarator survived 5 turns..

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  6. LordH's list is pretty nasty - fortunately he's not the luckiest general on the battlefield...

    That being said, 3 Knights is a lot to take down - but it does represent 50% of his army. Therefore you need to expect to throw at least half of your own army to tackle that threat.

    I find that I can manage to down 2 Knights reliably in 3 or 4 turns with my standard CSM list - which has about a dozen anti-tank weapons (primarily lascannons).

    Regarding blog wars, I would expect maybe 10% of lists to be nasty (not including the rock/paper/scissor combos that naturally happen with 40k) - so there is a good chance you will never face one.

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  7. I don't think any of the BW9 lists will be particularly 'nasty' per se, this is not a WAAC competition and Alex is very clear he wants to retain it's flavour of Blog owners and friends.

    One trick hard to kill units doesn't make a list 'nasty', even 3 Knights ;)

    Perhaps the scale up to 50 tickets will mean some lists are percieved as 'nastier' than previous BW's, but only I think due to Codex creep. The Eldar lists with new Codex Wraithguard will worry some, but this is not the 'internet' spam list-fest you'll see at big comps.

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  8. Cheers guys, makes me feel like it will be worthwhile traveling down for it. I have no problem losing a game as long as it is fun, guess it will just depend on the opponent.
    I must be spoiled with our local gaming group as no one really plays a nasty army, you always feel like you could win if your tactics/dice rolls were better rather than the army is unbeatable with what you have.

    As for the battle report, you must have got good positioning on the stormtalons to hit the knights in the side each time with the assault cannons. My own stormtalon could not do much against the knight I faced, but a lot of this was to do with careful positioning on my part as my opponent had a lot of interceptor fire on the field.
    Also, I noticed that on the knight turn 3 you mentioned that all the Grav centurion overwatch missed. Centurions aren't allowed to overwatch due to Slow and Purposeful.

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  9. Corrm- one think for sure I play to enjoy the game- every battle I've had a BW has been entertaining- with a beer to end it whilst discussing the fine points of the battle..

    If you are running 2 talons, get them to operate eitehr side of a knght, thus you should get a shot on target without the Ion shield in play.

    I didn't realise that about Slow and Purposeful- just read it myself- thanks! 6th, looks like your Obliz can't overwatch fire!!

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  10. Me either - @corrm, list to nothing we have to say as we are all obviously have no idea what we are going lol.

    Are travelling far for BW?

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  11. I'm travelling from St Andrews in Fife, so got about a 6 hour drive down.
    The drive is not too bad, it's the 2 nights in the hotel that are the most pricey aspect (I didn't fancy driving up the road on Saturday after a full day of gaming, that normally tires me out!).

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  12. Ouch- I'll be doing a 2 nights away for BW too- I'll be heading up from the south coast in Dorset- could be 5 hours, maybe 8 depends on the motorways!

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  13. Blog wars is a great tournament. Well worth the trip. Most of the games ive played there have been against fair armies, with decent players. Normally my luck (either of the draw or rolling) goes against me. My lists are also as much for fun as anything else.

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For the Emperor! (and other Xenos welcome...)