Tuesday 11 February 2020

Surrey 40k Tournament: Game 2- White Scars vs Imperial Knights/Adeptus Mechanicus

Game 2 of a recent ITC tournament would see my White Scars take on a mixed force of Imperial Knights and Adeptus Mechanicus. Knights are one of my least favourite factions to play against in the game, but I hadn't yet played them in the ITC format, so would be interested to see what I could do with them. 

We were playing ITC mission 2 with Search and Destroy deployment. In this mission, you score a bonus point if you hold the centre objective and your opponent's objective at the end of your turn. 

My army consisted of:
Battalion Detachment
Captain on Bike- Twin Bolter, Thunder Hammer, Storm Shield, Master of Snares, Wrath of the Heavens
Librarian- Jump Pack, Force Stave, Mantle of the Stormseer, Ride the Winds, Storm-wreathed
5 Intercessors- Bolt Rifles, Bolt Pistols
5 Intercessors- Bolt Rifles, Bolt Pistols
5 Intercessors- Bolt Rifles, Bolt Pistols
Impulsor- 2 Storm Bolters, Ironhail Heavy Stubber, Shield Dome
3 Eliminators- Bolt Sniper Rifles, Camo Cloaks
3 Eliminators- Bolt Sniper Rifles, Camo Cloaks

Battalion Detachment
Captain- Jump Pack, Master Crafted Thunder Hammer, Storm Shield, Chapter Master, Imperium's Sword
Lieutenant- Jump Pack, Power Axe, MC Bolter
5 Scouts- Bolters
5 Scouts- Bolters
5 Scouts- Bolt Pistol, Combat Knives
3 Inceptors- Assault Bolters
3 Inceptors- Assault Bolters

Battalion Detachment
Chaplain- Jump Pack, Crozius Arcanum, Bolt Pistol, Canticle of Hate
Phobos Librarian- Force Sword, Camo Cloak, Shrouding, Mind Raid
5 Infiltrators- Marksman Bolt Carbines, Smoke Grenades
5 Infiltrators- Marksman Bolt Carbines, Smoke Grenades
5 Tactical Marines- Bolters, Lascannon
Thunderfire Cannon- Techmarine Gunner with Flamer, Plasma Cutter, 2 Servo-arms



Tom's army consisted of:
Superheavy Detachment (Imperial Knights, House Krast)
Cerastus Knight-Castigator- Castigator Bolt Cannon, Tempest Warblade, Warlord, 2+ armour relic
Knight Crusader- Avenger Gatling Cannon, Rapid-Fire Battle Cannon, Heavy Stubber, Heavy Flamer, Ironstorm Missile Pod
Knight Crusader- Avenger Gatling Cannon, Thermal Cannon, Heavy Stubber, Heavy Flamer, Ironstorm Missile Pod

Battalion Detachment (Adeptus Mechanicus, House Stygies)
Daedalosus- Eradication Pistol, Servo Claw
Tech-Priest Enginseer- Laspistol, Omnissiah Axe, Servo-arm
5 Skitarri Rangers- Galvanic Rifles
5 Skitarri Rangers- Galvanic Rifles
5 Skitarri Rangers- Galvanic Rifles
Onager Dunecrawler- Cognis Heavy Stubber, Neutron Laser
Onager Dunecrawler- Cognis Heavy Stubber, Neutron Laser
Skorpius Disintegrator- Belleros Energy Cannon, 3 Cognis Heavy Stubbers

Callidus Assassin

For secondaries, I chose Engineers (my two Intercessor squads), Recon and Titanslayer. Tom chose Recon, Butcher's Bill and Old School. Some interesting choices for his secondary objectives there. Tom said he wasn't too familiar with ITC format, so may have missed out on some better options against my army.

I won the roll off for deployment zone and chose the one with the big set of ruins to block line of sight to much of my army. Tom then deployed his forces.

He deployed his three Knights aggressively, putting them close to the edge of his deployment zone, the Cerastus on the left, the Thermal Crusader in the middle and the Battle Cannon Crusader on the right. Two units of Rangers and the Tech-Priest deployed in the ruins at the back of his deployment zone, with a third unit of Rangers deploying further forward. The Mechanicus vehicles went in the centre, supported by the Daedalosus.

I then deployed my forces. I put the bulk of the army behind the ruins in my deployment zone to screen them from the enemy firepower. I put one unit of Scouts in the small ruins in front of them, one unit in the ruins to the right and one in the ruins to the left, accompanied by the Phobos Librarian. I spent 2CP on Encirclement to put the Impulsor (with Intercessors) and Infiltrators in reserve, along with the two units of Inceptors.





Tom chose to give me the first turn. I had hidden most of my army out of line of sight of his army, so he didn't want to waste a turn of firepower.

TURN 1- WHITE SCARS

The Chaplain's re-roll Canticle of Hate went off this turn. The Mechanicus Canticles gave them a cover save this turn.

The Scouts in front of my main forces advanced back into the ruins. If I went second, my plan was to run them onto the central objective to score hold more, but I didn't want to move them out as they could be easily targeted by the enemy army.


The Thunderfire Cannon fired at the forward Rangers, killing four of the squad. I spent 2CP to fire it again, killing the last member of the squad and earning my kill.

Both squads of Eliminators fired at the Cerastus and managed to do 3 wounds in total, but failed to get past its armour.

At the end of my turn, I scored Kill one and hold one. My plan was to hold off on moving out until I had the Assault Doctrine active, so I could do maximum damage against the Knights when they got in close. I could use my reserves to pop in each turn and get the Recon points, forcing the Knights to go after the Scouts in the ruins if they wanted to stop me.

TURN 1- IMPERIAL KNIGHTS

The Crusader moved up the centre, while the other Crusader moved around the ruins to get line of sight on the Scouts inside. The Cerastus moved around the central ruins towards my main lines, the Mechanicus tanks moving up to support their advance.



The Rangers in the ruins moved back to screen their back lines from the enemy reserves.

In the shooting phase, the Crusader fired on the Scouts on the right flank, killing the unit. It fired its missiles at the Thunderfire Cannon, but failed to do any damage.

The Skorpius fired at the Thunderfire, taking two wounds from it. The second Crusader fired its Missiles at the Thunderfire, but failed to harm it.

At the end of his turn, Tom scored kill one, hold one and one point for Old School (First Strike).

VICTORY POINTS:
White Scars- 2
Imperial Knights- 3

TURN 2- WHITE SCARS
I switched to the Tactical Doctrine. Tom used the Callidus Asssassin's stratagem that could cost me extra CP when using my own stratagems on a 4+. He also used the Canticles that gave him re-rolls of 1's to hit in shooting.

The Phobos Librarian moved out of sight of one Knight. The rest of the army stayed in position until the Knights were closer. At the end of the phase, I brought in one unit of Inceptors. Tom had screened out most of his deployment zone, but I was able to get a position near the Dunecrawlers to get into his table quarter. The Techmarine healed the Thunderfire back up to full strength.


The Phobos Librarian cast Smite, taking three mortal wounds from the middle Knight. The Librarian cast Ride the Winds on the Biker Captain., rolling a double 6. I used a CP re-roll (costing me 2CP for the Assassin's ability), but rolled another 6! The Librarian took 2 mortal wounds. That was stupid, as I didn't really need the power anyway this turn.

The Thunderfire Cannon targeted the back Infantry squad, killing four of them. I fired again (costing 3CP thanks to the Assassin)  and wiped out the squad.

The Inceptors fired at the Dunecrawler (they didn't really have another target) and took two wounds from it. The Eliminators fired at the central Knight, taking two wounds from it.

At the end of my turn, I scored hold 1, kill one, Recon and Engineers.

TURN 2- IMPERIAL KNIGHTS

The Knight Cerastus continued to move up on the ruins in my deployment zone, while the central Crusader moved up as well. The Dunecrawlers moved up and the Skorpius moved into the ruins to grab the objective. The Rangers moved back out to screen their backlines from my units.

At the end of the phase, the Assassin arrive, deploying near the Scouts in my deployment zone.

The Rangers fired at the Inceptors, but failed to do any damage. The Battle Cannon Knight fired at the Inceptors, killing two of the squad. A Dunecrawler fired at the last Inceptor, finishing him off.



The Thermal Knight fired at the Phobos Librarian, killing him. The Rockets targeted the Intercessors in the ruins to the left, but failed to do any damage. The Skorpius fired at the Scouts in the ruins on the left flank, killing one.

The Assassin fired its Neural Shredder at the Eliminators, but failed to wound. The Cerastus fired at the Tactical Squad, killing two of them.




In the charge phase, the Assassin charged the Scouts, dodging three wounds in overwatch as she assaulted. The Assassin only managed to strike down one Scout, who then put four wounds on her!

At the end of his turn, Tom scored kill 1, hold 1, kill more, hold more, Butcher's Bill and Recon.

VICTORY POINTS:
White Scars- 6
Imperial Knights- 10

The Knights had a strong lead at this point, but the White Scars were ready to launch their attack in the next turn.

TURN 3- WHITE SCARS
The Chaplain passed the Canticle of Hate with a CP re-roll. I also moved to the Assault phase.

The White Scars characters advanced towards the central Knight, ready to launch their attacks. The Inceptors arrived in the enemy deployment zone, while the Impulsor landed on the other side of the ruins from the Knight Crusader.





In the psychic phase, the Librarian cast Storm-wreathed, passing with a CP re-roll. I decided not to Smite in case he periled and died.

The Inceptors fired on the Rangers, killing three of the squad. The Impulsor added its firepower, killing one more. The Thunderfire Cannon was able to kill the last member of the squad.

The Intercessors fired at the Assassin, wounding her twice. Tom passed the saves with a CP re-roll. The Techmarine fired at the Assassin, finally killing her.


The Tactical Squad fired at the Knight Ceratus, managing to hit and wound, but Tom made his 5+ armour save. The Infiltrators added their firepower, doing one wound on the Knight. Both squads of Eliminators fired at the Knight, but failed to get past its armour.

In the charge phase, the Biker Captain led the charge against the Knight Crusader, with all the characters joining him in the assault. The Infiltrators charged the Dunecrawlers, making it in to combat. The Inceptors managed a 12" charge on the Tech-Priest holding the objective as well!

The Chapter Master struck at the Knight, doing 3 wounds and taking 15 damage from it. Tom then spent 2CP to interrupt. The Knight attacked the Librarian and Lieutenant, the only two characters without an invulnerable save. The Librarian was slain, while the Lieutenant took 2 wounds.


The Biker Captain then struck, killing the Knight with his Thunder Hammer. Tom then spent 2CP to explode the Knight on a 4+, and it did, with an 11" explosion. The Biker Captain took 3 mortal wounds, the Chapter Master took 2 wounds, the Chaplain took 2 wounds, the Lieutenant was slain and the Skorpius took 6 wounds. Annoyingly, the second Crusader was just out of the explosion range.

I spent my last 2 CP on Strike for the Heart to consolidate the Biker Captain into the Skorpius. I hoped I could stop it from falling back to keep me safe from the enemy firepower for a turn.

The Inceptors struck at the Tech-Priest, taking two wounds from him. The Infiltrators did one wound on a Dunecrawler. The attacks back from the Mechanicus units did no damage.

At the end of my turn, I scored kill 1, hold 1, Recon, Engineers and 3 points for Titanslayer.

TURN 3- IMPERIAL KNIGHTS

The Dunecrawlers fell back, but fortunately, the Master of Snares on the Biker Captain stopped the Skorpius from falling back. The Cerastus moved up on the White Scars firebase, while the Knight Crusader moved up on the White Scars characters.

The Crusader opened fire on the Chapter Master (battle cannon), Chaplain (Gatling Cannon), Scouts (missile pod) and Infiltrators (stubber). The battle cannon did four wounds on the Chapter Master, failing one wound. The D3 roll was a 1, he used a CP re-roll and got another 1. The Chaplain was slain by the Gatling Cannon, while the Scouts and Infiltrators were unharmed.

The Cerastus fired at the Infiltrators near the Dunecrawlers, killing the unit.

In the charge phase, the Crusader assaulted the White Scars Biker Captain. The Knight Cerastus charged the Tactical Squad, but failed the charge with a CP re-roll. The Tactical Squad fired overwatch, hitting and wounding with the Lascannon, but the Knight made its save once more.

The Knight Crusader did five wounds on the Biker Captain. I failed one invulnerable save, but Tom only rolled a 2 for damage, leaving him on one wound. In reply, I chose to attack the Skorpius to take it off the objective. The Captain was able to destroy the enemy vehicle, which thankfully did not explode.

The Tech-Priest was unable to harm the Inceptors, who then cut him down.

At the end of his turn, Tom scored kill 1 and Butcher's Bill. I scored Hold more and the bonus point for holding the two objectives.

VICTORY POINTS:
White Scars- 15
Imperial Knights- 12

A great third turn had seen the White Scars pull ahead. My characters had taken the Knight out, but the toll had been high. I decided not to attack the Knight with the Captain. I would only be wounding on 4's and would have had 3 damage attacks as I did not charge, so was unlikely to do much damage to it, over killing the tank, which would draw me on number of kills and stop Tom from scoring the point.

TURN 4- WHITE SCARS 

The Intercessors disembarked from the Impulsor and moved into the ruins, while the Chapter Master advanced into the ruins to hide from the enemy firepower. The Impulsor advanced into the enemy deployment zone. The Biker Captain fell back to hold the central objective. The Tactical Squad moved up on the Knight to block its move, but out of heroic intervention range. The Scouts advanced towards the centre of the field.


The Infiltrators fired at the Cerastus, doing one wound on it. The Eliminators added their firepower, taking one more wound from it. The Thunderfire Cannon pounded the Knight, but failed to do any damage. The Lascannon failed to hit the Knight.

At the end of my turn, I scored hold 1, the bonus objective point, Engineers and Recon (maxed out). I had done 28 wounds on the Knights, so needed 6 more to score my last Titanslayer point.

TURN 4- IMPERIAL KNIGHTS

The Dunecrawlers moved up on the Biker Captain, while the Cerastus moved around the Tactical Squad.

The first Dunecrawler fired at the Biker Captain, doing one wound which was saved. The second did three wounds and was able to slay the Captain. The Knight Crusader fired at the Eliminators, killing the squad. The Knight Cerastus fired at the Thunderfire Cannon, killing it.


The Crusader charged the Scouts, while the Cerastus charged the Tactical Squad. Both squads were wiped out in combat. The Cerastus consolidated into the Infiltrators, who did one wound on it with their attacks.



At the end of his turn, Tom scored kill 1, kill more, Butcher's Bill and Recon. I scored hold more.

VICTORY POINTS:
White Scars- 20
Imperial Knights- 16

TURN 5- WHITE SCARS

The Inceptors left cover, moving up on the Dunecrawlers, while the Impulsor moved onto the objective. One Intercessors squad moved up on the Knight Crusader, while the Infiltrators fell back.




In the shooting phase, the Intercessors fired at the Knight Crusader, doing 2 wounds but failing to get past his armour. The Eliminators and Techmarine fired at the Cerastus, but failed to do any damage.

The Inceptors fired at a Dunecrawler and Daedalosus, doing two wounds on the character and 3 wounds on the vehicle.

In the charge phase, the Intercessors charged the Knight Crusader, losing two to overwatch. The Infiltrators and Techmarine charged the Knight Cerastus. Though they were likely to die, if I could do a few wounds on the Knights, I could get my last point for Titanslayers. The Inceptors charged the Daedalosus.



In the fight phase, the White Scars were unable to do any damage to the Imperial Knights. The Inceptors killed the Daedalosus and consolidated into both Dunecrawlers. In reply, the Knight Crusader killed the Intercessors, while the Cerastus was only able to kill one Infiltrator and put 3 wounds on the Techmarine.

I scored kill one, hold one, Engineers (maxed out).

TURN 5- IMPERIAL KNIGHTS

The Crusader moved up on the firebase, while both Dunecrawlers fell back, as did the Cerastus.

The Knight fired at the Eliminators, Scouts and Inceptors. The Avenger Gatling Cannon killed 2 Inceptors and left one on a wound, while the Rockets killed 2 Scouts. The Battle Cannon did 5 wounds on the Elminators, but I was able to make all my saves thanks to their camo cloaks.



The Knight Cerastus fired at the Intercessors, killing two.

The Cerastus charge the Infiltrators and Techmarine, killing two Infiltrators and the Techmarine.

At the end of his turn, Tom scored kill one and kill more, as well as maxing Recon.

VICTORY POINTS:
White Scars- 24
Imperial Knights- 19

Turn 5 saw the White Scars still in the lead, but with very few models remaining on the board. It would be a very close game for the final turn.

TURN 6- WHITE SCARS 

The Inceptor moved up on the objective, while the Infiltrator fell back from combat, and the surviving Intercessors moved to hold the objective.



In the shooting phase, the Eliminators fired at the Knight Crusader. Fortunately, I was able to do a mortal wound and get one wound through, doing three damage to give me the final Titanslayer point. The Inceptor added its firepower, but failed to do any damage.

At the end of my turn, I scored hold 1, the bonus for holding the two objectives and Titanslayer.

TURN 6- IMPERIAL KNIGHTS

The Knights moved up to finish off the White Scars units.



The firepower from the Knights killed the Intercessors, Infiltrators and the Scout squad. The Dunecrawlers killed the Inceptor.

In the charge phase, the Cerastus charged the Eliminators, killing them in combat. He consolidated onto the objective.

At the end of his turn, Tom scored kill 1, hold 1, kill more, Butcher's Bill, Last Blood and Linebreaker.

VICTORY POINTS:
White Scars- 27
Imperial Knights- 25

An incredibly close game, but a win for the White Scars in the end.

AFTER-BATTLE THOUGHTS
Thanks to Tom for a great and very close game.

Overall, I think my game plan worked well, combined with some incredible bad luck on Tom's part that helped to secure the victory.

My only play in this game was to hide out till the Knights got closer and I could power up my Characters with the Assault Doctrine to do maximum damage on the Knights. The terrain also helped me in this game, allowing me to hide some units to get Recon each turn. The ITC ruins rules were also great for this game and one of the reasons why I like the rules. Without the bottom floor of the ruins blocking line of sight, I would not have been able to shield any of my firebase units, and they would have died quite easily to the firepower of the Knights.

As it was, the Knights moved forward and I was able to go after them on turn 3 and take one out with my combined attacks. In this case, I made the mistake of charging in the Librarian and Lieutenant in to the combat. This allowed Tom to interrupt and kill the Librarian and take the Lieutenant down to one wound. Once the Knight blew up with the stratagem, he was able to kill the Lieutenant and damage many of my characters.

The explosion was annoying, as it cut the power of my army a lot and I couldn't really risk going after the second Crusader thanks to this. However, Tom was unlucky in his own turn, not being able to finish off the Chapter Master in shooting and failing to kill the Biker Captain in combat. This was a huge boost for me, as it allowed me to grab the objectives and take out the Skorpius to equal the kills that turn. If the Biker Captain had been killed by the Knight, I think it would have swung the game in his favour, as it would have denied me a few victory points.

The Knight Cerastus was also annoying. It didn't do too much damage, but it kept making its saves thanks to the 2+ armour save. The Lascannon hit and wounded 3 times and Tom rolled a 5 to save all three times. It was very frustrating, especially after the great performance on the Lascannon in the last game.

I wonder if Tom would have been better keeping the Knights back in his deployment zone to stop my units from getting to them and scoring Titanslayer. However, he had picked Recon as a secondary, so had to go out and get the points for that. The only secondary point he didn't score was Slay the Warlord, which was down to bad luck on his part. I also managed to score all my secondaries, only winning due to the bonus points for holding the central objective and my opponent's objective.

I thought I was in real trouble in his final turn, as he racked up a lot of points to catch up to my lead.

Overall, a fun and tactical game. I was looking forward to seeing how the next one turned out. 

7 comments:

  1. Well done for holding your own on the arch-nemesis of yours!

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  2. Good game. What might've been better is taking kingslayer, then youd only have needed to kill the warlord knight rather than 2 knights. Sounded like an interesting game though :)

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    Replies
    1. I had considered that, but as you can only select one, I thought he might hide that one back to keep me from scoring it.

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  3. Nail biter! I can already see that my plan for a double battalion of minimum squad Skitarii is going to go horribly wrong though. Unfortunately I don't have more models.

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