Game 2 of the recent Mystic Games RTT would see my World Eaters take on George's Chaos Knights. The mission was Purge the Foe, with Crucible of Battle deployment.
My army consisted of:
Angron
Lord Invocatus
Master of Execution (Berserker Glaive)
Kharn
10 Berzerkers
5 Berzerkers
Rhino
Rhino
10 Jackals
10 Jackals
2 Spawn
3 Eightbound
6 Exalted Eightbound
3 Exalted Eightbound
George's army consisted of:
War Dog Stalker- Aura of Terror
Poxbringer
Rotigus
4 War Dog Brigands
5 War Dog Karnivores
3 Nurglings
10 Plaguebearers
I hadn't played Chaos Knights much up to this point, and knew I especially didn't want to be playing them on Purge the Foe! A lot of strong vehicles with some Daemon units for playing the mission.
I don't usually take fixed secondaries, and didn't want to fall into the trap of taking Bring it Down. Yes, it is worth a lot of points, but my army doesn't have a huge number of options for taking on the tough vehicles if I don't have the CP for the +1 to wound strat.
We deployed as shown below.
I decided to put Kharn with the 10-man Berzerkers. I figured the re-rolls would be better with the higher volume of attacks against the tougher Knights.
George spread his forces over his deployment zone, keeping one War Dog in reserve, along with Rotigus and the Poxwalkers. The Nurglings went in front of my jackals to block the Scout moves.
I won the roll off for first turn.
TURN 1
In my first turn, I drew No Prisoners and Deploy Teleport Homers. For my blessings, I took FNP and lethal hits.
I moved the Jackals up on the Nurglings, with Lord Invocatus moving up to do Teleport Homers. The spawn moved up on the objective on the left.
The Jackals charged and killed the Nurglings. I figured I would lose the Jackals anyway to indirect fire, so decided to go for the 6 points killing the Nurglings would get me.
At the end of my turn, I scored 4 pts for a kill, 2 pts for No Prisoners and 5 for Homers.
In his first turn, George drew Area Denial and Capture Enemy Outpost.
The Knights moved up on the World Eaters in the centre, and spread out onto the objectives.
In the shooting phase, the Knights fired at the Jackals in the centre, killing them. I used the strat to sticky the objective.
The rest of the Knights fired their indirect havoc launchers at the other unit of jackals, but only managed to kill 5 of them. The changes to indirect fire had a big impact here, as a lot of the shots were missing.
In the charge phase, one Karnivore tried an 11" charge on Lord Invocatus and made it using Knights of Shade! That was frustrating! Lord Invocatus was easily slain, giving George kill and kill more. He held onto the two secondaries.
VICTORY POINTS:
World Eaters- 21
Chaos Knights- 18
TURN 2
In my turn, I got 8 pts on the primary for holding more objectives, and drew Storm Hostile Objective and Area Denial. I took FNP and lethal hits for my blessings again.
Angron moved up on the Karnivore that killed Lord Invocatus. I moved the Rhinos back to screen out my backlines. I decided not to push up yet, as I wanted to get advance and charge and let the War Dogs get closer. The Spawn moved back from the objective to the ruins in the centre of my deployment zone.
George then used rapid ingress to bring the Plaguebearers onto the middle objective. This was a good play I didn't see coming, and would score him hold more the next turn.
Angron charged and killed the Karnivore, getting me four points for a kill. I also used the strat to roll for blessings again and got sustained hits. I discarded Area Denial.
In his turn, George drew Aread Denial to go with Capture Enemy Outpost. He got 8 on the primary for holding more. The Plaguebearers moved up to cover the central objective, while a couple of the Wardogs moved up to get line of sight on Angron. Rottigus then deep struck onto the objective on his right.
In the shooting phase, two of the Brigands opened fire on Angron, taking 10 wounds from him in total after I failed to pass a single invulnerable save against the meltas. The Havoc launchers fired at the Jackals, only managing to kill another 3.
There were no charges, so George scored Area Denial and held onto Capture Enemy Outpost once more. He made no kills, so I scored kill more.
VICTORY POINTS:
World Eaters- 36
Chaos Knights- 31
TURN 3
In my turn, I drew Cleanse and Storm Hostile Objective. For my blessings, I took Advance and Charge and FNP. I also used a CP to auto-pass the morale on Angron, I didn't want to risk the chance of him not being able to use strats or hold an objective.
Looking at the position of the War Dogs, I decided it was time to go for it. Angron, the Exalted and the Eightbound advanced on the right towards the Armigers. I used the stratagem to auto advance Kharn and the Berzerkers 6" towards the Plaguebearers, supported by the Spawn and Lord Invocatus. Their Rhino moved over to guard my home objective.
In the charge phase, Angron was able to charge two of the War Dogs, while the Exalted and Eightbound charged one each. The Berzerkers, Spawn and Invocatus charged the Plaguebearers in the middle objective.
Angron struck and kills two of the Knights against him, consolidating onto the objective, despite George using the FNP ability on one of them. His re-rolls then helped the Exalted to kill the other War Dog, while the Eightbound killed the other one. The Berzerkers were able to kill the Plaguebearers in the middle.
At the end of my turn, I had scored Storm Hostile and a great 5 kills. I discarded Cleanse. I had also forgotten to bring in my 3-man Exalted this turn!
George drew Defend Stronghold and had Capture Enemy Outpost. He used Knights of Shade to move the Karnivores through the ruin walls. He then brought in the Poxbringer into my deployment zone. I had to use a CP to rapid ingress my 3-man Exalted into the enemy deployment zone, or lose them.
The Knights fired at Angron and were able to kill him. They were also able to kill one Spawn.
In the charge phase, the Knights charged the World Eaters, one going into the Berzerkers, one into the Spawn and one into the Exalted.
In the fight phase, three of the Berzerkers were slain, along with the Spawn and two of the Exalted Eightbound. The attacks back from Kharn and the Berzerkers were able to slay one Karnivore, while the Exalted took the other down to 3 wounds after he used the FNP ability on it.
At the end of his turn, George scored a kill and discarded Capture Enemy Outpost.
VICTORY POINTS:
World Eaters- 53
Chaos Knights- 43
TURN 4
In my turn, I drew Behind Enemy Lines and Tempting Target (the objective with Rottigus). I got FNP and lethal hits on my blessings. The Exalted and Berzerkers failed their battleshock tests and George used Terrorshade to take two wounds from the Exalted on the bottom objective.
With the Berzerkers failing their battleshock, I decided to move up on the nearby Brigand, rather than the Karnivore on the objective, as I was unlikely to kill it without the +1 to wound stratagem. The 3-man Exalted moved towards the Knights' home objective.
The Master of Execution and Berzerkers moved up towards the Poxbringer, while the Rhino moved up to block Rottigus from getting to them.
In the shooting phase, the Rhino did a few wounds to the Poxbringer. The Berzerkers then charged the Brigand, while the MoE led the Berzerkers against the Poxwalker. The Eightbound charged the War Dog in combat with the Exalted.
The MoE easily killed the enemy character, while the Eightbound were able to kill the other War Dog. Kharn failed to wound the Brigand, while the Berzerkers did three wonds on it.
I discarded Tempting Target and scored Behind Enemy Lines for 3 pts. George also scored Defend Stronghold.
In his fourth turn, George drew Engage on all Fronts and Secure No Man's Land. He got 8 on the primary for holding more.
The War Dog Stalker used shades to move through the ruins to target the Berzerkers. A Karnivore moved up on the World Eaters' home objective, while Rottigus moved up on the Rhino.
In the shooting phase, Rottigus put 2 wounds on the Rhino. A couple of the Berzerkers in combat were also slain. The Knights fired at the Jackals, but failed to do any damage.
In the charge phase, the Stalker charged the Berzerkers, and the Karnivore charge the Rhino, while Rottigus charged the other Rhino. I used Heroic Intervention to put the Master of Execution into combat with the Karnivore.
The MoE struck first and was able to kill the Karnivore. Rottigus destroyed the Rhino, while the Berzerkers took a few more wounds.
VICTORY POINTS:
World Eaters- 68
Chaos Knights- 57
TURN 5
In my turn, I drew Secure NML and Investigate Signals. I got FNP and lethal hits on my blessings. I got 4 pts for holding an objective.
I moved the Exalted onto the Knights' home base to get rid of their sticky objective. The Eightbound moved up to support the Berzerkers. I used the 6" advance strat to move the other Berzerkers onto the central objective, while the Jackals moved to get signals.
In the charge phase, the Exalted and Eightbound charged the War Dogs, killing both of them.
At the end of my turn, I scored Signals for 2 pts and Secure NML for 5 pts.
In his turn, George drew Bring it Down and Extend Battle Lines. He moved Rottigus to get a couple of points for Extend. I got kill more.
With that, the game ended.
VICTORY POINTS:
World Eaters- 80
Chaos Knights- 62
A win for the World Eaters!
AFTER-BATTLE THOUGHTS
Thanks to George for a tough and fun game.
I was a little surprised with how well that game went. Purge up against Knights is always tough, as they generally have a low model count army, so you can give up kill more a lot in the game.
The changes to indirect fire were a great boost in this game, as it meant that my Jackals were not easy targets to pick off with the Knights' indirect fire. I thought I was in real trouble when George made the first turn long charge into Lord Invocatus, but I was able to deal with the War Dog. Had the reply been enough to kill Angron, I don't think I could have won this game.
Angron was key in turn 3 for killing a couple of the War Dogs and providing the re-rolls to allow the rest of the army to deal with another two of the War Dogs. I think this was the turning point in the game, as losing 5 units in a single turn was rough for the Chaos Knights.
I didn't have it all my own way though, as I was failing a lot of the battleshock tests thanks to the Knights' detachment ability. It really had an impact on my gameplan, stopping me from grabbing objectives and using strats to help me kill the War Dogs.
I think pushing so many Knights forward could have been a mistake. Putting one on each objective would force me to move up to deal with them. This would have then exposed my army to the firepower of the rest of the War Dogs. By pushing so many up, I was able to get a lot of charges off on one flank and deal with the bulk of the army in a single turn.
Overall, a fun game, it was a tough challenge and quite a tactical game.
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