Tournament Report - Desperate Allies II (The Outpost) - 1500pt Doubles

You may have been following my progress painting my knights up for Saturday's doubles event at the Outpost in Sheffield (my FLGS). Today I'll fill you in on how they got on as my half of my doubles team with Matt. First off, here's our list which we're calling Knights of the Rectangular Table:

750pts of Imperial Knights
Knight Paladin
Knight Warden

748pts of Eldar
Farseer w/ Spirit Stone of Anath'lan, Singing Spear
14 Guardian Defenders w/ Warlock
3 Windriders
6 Swooping Hawks inc. Exarch
Wraithknight w/ Wraithcannons and Scatter Laser

We'd talked at one point about taking 4 Imperial Knights but we decided against it because we didn't think it'll be dynamic enough and also because it'd be pretty miserable to play against. I'm not pretending this list isn't any less powerful (probably the opposite in fact) but at least there's some variety in there. Anyway, the IK are pretty obvious in role. The Wraithknight has a scatter laser so it can shoot something with its wraithcannons and still fire a weapon at its intended melee target. The Farseer is there to buff the Wraithknight but along with the warlock it can also make the guardians pretty nasty and tough to shift from an objective. Windriders are, of course, for late game objective thievery. The Swooping Hawks seem to catch people out (more on that in the batreps) but they offer quite a lot to the list and some much needed anti-air.

Bear in mind that we haven't been to the Outpost in over a year and normally the field is thick with filthy lists. We figured we'd need somet
hing powerful to be in with a chance.

Game One vs. GK/SM (Imp. Fists)
This was Jim and Owen's first tournament game since their recent return to the hobby so we felt pretty guilty that they'd be in for a rough ride. They were fielding a GK terminator librarian with GK terminators and two dreadknights along with an SM librarian, two tactical squads (one in a rhino), several bikes (2 grav) including an attack bike, a devastator team (3 missiles) and five scouts. We'd be playing Purge the Alien on Dawn of War deployment.

Our opponents elected to deep strike all of their GK force which was especially risky given that we got the Strategic trait that gives -1 to their rolls. They got the first turn and none of the GK arrived. Surprisingly they chose to drive the rhino forward and disembark despite being out of range. Other than coming closer to us the only thing they got from their first turn was two wounds from the Wraithknight. Our response was pretty brutal with the Knight Paladin taking out the recently disembarked tactical squad for First Strike and the Wraithknight adding the rhino to the pile. The Knight Warden then took out a handful of the bikers too.

One of the dreadknights now arrived but the other and the terminators stayed in reserve. The dreakdnight wiped out a swathe of guardians with its incinerator and psycannon though leaving the farseer more vulnerable. The swooping hawks arrived and their grenade pack made short work of the scouts. The wraithknight turned its attention to the newly arrived dreadknight and its wraithcannons made short work of it thanks to Guide when it failed both of its invulnerable saves. Meanwhile the Warden cleared up most of the remaining Imperial Fists who held on just long enough for the terminators to arrive. Sadly for the terminators they struggled to hit the guardians with their storm bolters and were whittled down with fire from pretty much our entire army before the Paladin charged in and put his reaper chainsword through the librarian.

The final dreadknight arrived and in some of the ballsiest play we've ever encountered our opponents dropped him right in between both Imperial Knights in order to try to take out our guardians for a VP. The dreadknight not only didn't scatter but rolled a double 1. That guy really meant it! He continued his badassery into the shooting phase where he annihilated the guardians, warlock and farseer for 2 VPs plus Slay the Warlord. Incredible play! The joy was short-lived though as the Imperial Knights and Wraithknight let rip with their firepower bringing him down to a single wound which was easily stripped with a double knight charge for the 14-3 tabling.

As an interesting side-note. Jim and Owen went on to play a double IK and Stormsurge list which they tabled thanks to deploying everything and some vicious use of a Vortex of Doom! They played off for third place on table two at the end, narrowly losing out 5-3 in a nailbiter.

Game Two vs. Ravenwing/White Scars
Jim and Adam had a pretty nasty combination of White Scars and Ravenwing. They'd got a Chaplain, 7-8 black knights, a darkshroud, 3 MM/AC landspeeders, librarian on bike (with some funky upgrades that gave him Ignores Cover amongst other things), three bike squads (1x 2 melta, 2x 2 grav) and a pair of lascannon toting stormtalons. They'd annihilated their first opponents who had no way of getting around their 2+ re-rollable cover and therefore succumbed to all that plasma talon goodness. It'd be Big Guns Never Tire and Vanguard Strike.

Well, we made short work of that with the first shot of the game being a double wraithcannon hit on the darkshroud and that all important 6 on the destroyer table (giving us First Strike too). We achieved little else though as the black knights still have 3+ re-rollable! With the White Scars in reserve we'd tried to keep out of range of plasma talon fire. Not 100% sure why but our opponents had elected not to use their Scout moves for the black knights. Nevertheless they were able to strip two wounds from the Wraithknight with the speeders' weaponry. The black knights elected not to shoot the knight at all and instead turbo-boosted into the corner to benefit from their formation rules allowing Jink and normal BS in turn 2.

The Wraithknight hopped out of cover and set up for a 3" charge on the speeders electing not to shoot them in case they ended up too far away. It didn't help mind you as Matt double 1'd it and couldn't re-roll having used the jump move to get out of cover. The IK started to whittle down the black knights too taking a couple more down. We knew the reprisal would be fierce and were pretty confident the Wraithknight was a goner. The White Scars were arriving too! The Ravenwing advanced allowing the white scars to pile down the flank towards the Wraithknight. Their entire army let rip but when the dust settled the Wraithknight survived on a single wound!! This was definitely the turning point in the game.


The Wraithknight didn't make the same mistake twice and walked through the speeders in short order. The Warden did the same for the black knights too. Meanwhile the white scars had left themselves bunched together so with help from the Warden's gatling cannon they were whittle down considerably killing both the librarian and chaplain in the process. The stormtalon had also arrived into the mix but fortunately within range of the Swooping Hawks who leapt over it sticking haywire grenades to its hull in the process and bringing it down. The Imperial Knight Warden then finished off the White Scar bikers.

We'd brought the Windriders onto the far side of the board without much consideration hiding them since everything was happening in the opposite corner. Their plan was to hop onto one of the objectives in the last turn (standard really!). The plan was scuppered when the remaining WS stormtalon and bikers came onto that flank and easily cut all three down. This left at least one of the 5 objectives in jeopardy with the potential for another to be contested since they were going second. Had the game ended on turn 5 we'd have lost two objectives. Fortunately for us we got right through to turn 7 which gave us enough time to get the Imperial Knights over with the last biker falling to a heavy stubber for the 18-0 tabling but not before the Swooping Hawks had done a number on another stormtalon!

Game Three vs. Skitarii/Blood Angels

We fully expected to be playing the winner from the second table which was a pretty scary combo of thunderwolves and cataphron destroyers but thanks to a big score from table 3 we found ourselves up against Tom and Anthony who were fielding a librarian, tactical squad, assault squad, 3 bikes (2 grav) plus a stormraven. The Skitarii half consisted of rangers, vanguard, 2 ironstriders, 2 dragoons and 2 onagers.

Sadly this proved to be another one-sided affair. We took down very little in the first turn apart from all three bikes for First Strike. In return they could only strip a wound or two from the Wraithknight. Since range and cover were an
issue the next turn didn't prove particularly destructive which meant the dragoons were able to charge the Wraithknight. Sadly for them they failed to harm him. Matt took one out in response but we forgot about Stomp so one survived to keep him locked in combat. The Swooping Hawks arrived and used their grenade pack to wipe out the vanguard. The ironstriders fell to the Imperial Knights who also mopped up the rangers and tactical squad with charges and two lots of single stomps rolling 6s! The Swooping Hawks then swept (pun intended) in and took out the onagers with haywire whilst the Guardians finished off the assault marines with the help of Guide.

That left the Stormraven to arrive on turn 4 and stripped another couple of wounds from the Wraithknight. Since it stayed up in the air we were unable to damage it but when we got a turn 6 they elected to hover to assault the guardians off the relic. That led to wraithcannons at the raven before the Warden charged in, finished off the tactical squad and librarian with its reaper chainsword. Game over, 12-0.

Conclusion
We finished with a maximum 44 VPs (although more would've been available had there been Heavy Support in Game 2) having only given up 3. The team in second place scored 26 VPs. Suffice to say I was pretty embarrassed but Matt being Matt, wasn't. As I said earlier, we were surprised by the relatively tame armies in attendance. Granted 750pts a-piece limits things but we still expected more FW stuff and other Wraithknights.

There's no question we were lucky with our first round opponents. I'm not sure we'd have faired well against 2-3 of the other lists in the mix that we fortunately avoided. In the end we played our first game on table 1 by chance and never moved. This suited me fine because a) I'm lazy and b) my Knights are based on snowy terrain and this was a snow table!

The Eldar took some hammer with the guardians taking heavy casualties in games 1 & 3. The wraithknight nearly bought it in 2 & 3 and the Hawks were heavily depleted in 2 as well. Ultimately the Eldar force was squishier meaning they got targeted far more. My Knights on the other hand only took 2 HP all day which goes to show how dominant they can be when they meet the right opponents. I don't think they're invulnerable by any stretch though but it was a nice way to christen them! They never felt particularly devastating although on reflection they did rack up a pretty decent death toll.

Daylight is your friend for photography!

I have to say the Swooping Hawks were the stars of the show for me. They annihilated the Scouts in game one. Took down two Stormtalons in game two (which the rest of our army would've struggled to do). They also cleared out a whole squad of skitarii and two onagers in three. For their points they were insane. I think they're an oft overlooked unit purely on the basis of their past. In their current form they're almost a must-have I reckon and not too expensive to justify inclusion.

Well, I can't complain with the £25 store credit and hence £9 Ghost expansion for X-wing (£42.99 RRP). What was disappointing though was that the organiser chose to abandon best painted awards because of the nature of doubles. Our team for example had a horrific clash of green and orange! It's a shame they didn't have a per player competition though. I'm not saying I'd have won but it'd be nice to be judged for my painting for a change. I've won Best Painted there before but that was in a field of barely painted models!

I have to say that playing doubles (and generally tournament play) has got me very excited for Double Trouble which is now under 3 months away. There are still tickets available of course and there aren't any superheavies allowed!! With that in mind, check back later in the week for a rundown of my list for DT and the mammoth hobby task ahead of me in the coming months!

40K Battle Brothers Tournament - Day Two Battle Reports

After a poor start to the first day we pulled things back to give us a decent score of 23 VPs (out of a possible 31). Not perfect by any means but with a couple of good wins on the second day we could've been in contention. As I said yesterday, we were mostly hoping we'd avoid the super heavies and Daemons spawn lists. We'd have really liked a game against the new Orks too.

Game Four - Ripped Tights vs. Astra Militarum & Tau
Our opponents for the first of the day's games would be Ed and Rob with their combination of Astra Militarum and Tau. Their army consisted of a commander cyclic ion and shield drones, crisis bodyguard with burst cannons, two six-man units of fire warriors, four pathfinders, Longstrike in his hammerhead, a unit of broadsides, a company command squad, two squads of guardsmen, a hellhound, Leman Russ punisher and 3 ratlings. We'd be playing Purge the Alien.with Hammer and Anvil deployment.

Our opponents won the roll off but we managed to Seize and turn one was totally brutal. The wave serpent managed to strip all 3 hull points from the hellhound for First Blood. This was closely followed by the crisis team stripping all 3 hull points from Longstrike. We'd have felt bad already but this was followed by the riptides double pie-plating the broadsides and hitting all the pathfinders too. With cover removed we managed to wipe out all of the suits and the pathfinders with them. Suffice to say we felt pretty shitty from the off in this game.

The feelings of remorse were pretty short lived though as the Leman Russ took two wounds from the wraithknight followed by the ratlings pulling something amazing out of the bag by hitting three times and rending all three times too taking the wraithknight down to a single wound. Fortunately there was nothing else to fire at him though. On the other side the commander and fire warriors killed off all of the marker drones but they'd more than done their job.


We got one unit of kroot on each side and they started to whittle down the guardsmen on the left and the fire warriors on the right. The crisis teams and riptide started to try and chip away at the commander with his 2+/4++ and shield drones. I made the mistake of not pushing the riptides up the field to get into reliable melta range but our opponents were also forgetting to do their assault phase moves early on. On the other side of the board the wraithknight was downed by a melta from the guardsmen (I think). The wraithguard got out of their transport to try and start flaming stuff but met a demo charge which killed the entire unit, spiritseer included!

Despite this temporary morale boost for our opponents their army was starting to dwindle pretty quickly. At the end of turn 5 they had 3 guardsmen left and since we got a turn 6 we completed the tabling for a 16-5 win. As ever that's the problem with 40K in that sometimes it feels worse to win than it does to lose!

Game Five - Ripped Tights vs. Imperial Fists & Dark Eldar
We were drawn against our game one opponents again so swapped with the table next to us which gave us Kalon and Nick who were running Space Marines and Dark Eldar. Their list consisted of an archon with wyches in a raider, two raiders full of kabalites, three centurions with a terminator librarian, two 5 man tactical squads and a stormtalon. We'd be playing Scouring on Dawn of War and with the grav and poisoned weaponry lined up against us we expected this game to be tough.

We won the roll off but deployed conservatively as our opponents got the +1 to seize warlord trait and sure enough they seized (but on a 6 funnily enough). Their raiders all advanced with the wyches' one going flat out. The other two took some shots at the drones and managed to kill one. The centurions were out of range so we started our turn. The crisis team fired at a raider but could only take a weapon off one although they did at least force Jinks. The riptide tried to melta it but could only immobilise it which wasn't helpful and disappointed on a 4+ to explode! The other riptide managed to both overheat and take a wound which was special of it and left the centurions unharmed. The wraithknight blew up a raider for First Blood.

To our surprise the archon and wyches elected to charge the crisis team to score Slay the Warlord and succeeded leaving them in the open. The wraithguard retaliated by wiping out the wyches allowing the wave serpent to instant kill the archon despite his shadow field. The centurions moved out to shoot the wraithknight and managed to take it down to one wound which would've been enough for the storm talon to kill it had it not decided to target the wave serpent instead which it could only glance.

The riptide on the left tried to hammer the centurions in response but with their Forewarning 4+ invulnerable save they passed a whopping 5 out of 6 to keep them in the fight. The wraithknight did manage to kill one though. The remaining centurions split fire to kill the wraithknight and a couple of the wraithguard. The tactical squad began to advance towards one of our objectives to take it from the riptide with Objective Secured. This proved futile as they were cut down before they got there. The other riptide got a chance at half-range melta shots on the stormtalon but could only destroy the lascannon. The wraithguard advanced on their objective and did enough damage to the tactical squad to make them flee the battle. Meanwhile one of the remaining raiders tank shocked some of our kroot and made them run.

Over the next couple of turns we managed to kill off most of their force (the librarian helped with perils) but they were left with a single centurion to give them an objective and the immobilised raider (which just wouldn't die) to give them Linebreaker. We'd got all of the other objectives though and with all three secondaries again we'd taken a 16-4 win (although it should've been 17-4 since we again forgot the bonus point for the stormtalon).

Conclusion
We'd certainly scored a huge number of VPs over the course of the day but with the inclusion of Favourite Game votes (that we rarely seem to get) it was anyone's guess where we'd place. To our surprise we managed to finish second overall. Of course, being a GW event we only got a certificate for our trouble but better than nothing I suppose. Once again the favourite game votes proved to be our undoing as the guys who won scored 12 bonus VPs for four votes meaning we'd have needed two votes to win (we got none). I've complained about the system before but these days I just accept that's how the event works so a place in the top three is more down to luck than anything else.

It's frustrating not to get a single vote. We genuinely go out of our way to be pleasant to our opponents but of course there are times when we have to query rules etc. Trouble is, no matter how nice you are to your opponent they won't enjoy it if they lose. Anyway, I'm not going to complain again as I've covered my objections before. We had a great weekend once again and to come away with something is great. We ended up with 55 VPs over the course of 5 games which is pretty good I reckon!

On a side note there were something like a dozen Imperial Knights present with some lists having several which I was pretty surprised about but I suppose the model is well loved. Unfortunately we don't know what won the tournament in the end but I'll try to find out for my own interest as much as anything else.

40K Battle Brothers Tournament - Day One Battle Reports

We're starting to lose count of the times we've been to Battle Brothers (formerly Doubles) now. It isn't without its faults but generally speaking the atmosphere is good and you meet some great people. Doubles is a fantastic format and it's a shame there aren't more events available. This will actually be the last Battle Brothers this year as WHW is closing for refurbishment for a good while. This is our first tournament of 7th edition and the first where we're likely to come across Super Heavies and Forge World.

Sadly, with GW putting the ticket price up year on year (although this time they've dropped a meal and charged less) the numbers have been dwindling. This time there were only 48 teams when in the past there's been more like 150 teams. Even so there was a fair selection of armies. I counted over a dozen Imperial Knights with a couple of lists having more than one and one army being knight only. There were also two Warhounds (who ended up playing each other), a Revenant and a Transcendant C'tan amongst others. Fortunately during the first day we managed to avoid such nonsense.

We were running a slight variation of our Ghostly Tides list with a new name. We'd got a commander with two crisis suits all with missile pods and four marker drones between them, two riptides, two units of kroot, a spiritseer with d-scythe wraithguard in a serpent and a wraithknight.

Game One - Ripped Tights vs. Tyranids

Our first opponents were John and John who were running Tyranids with a Skyblight formation. I've never come across this before but it's basically a flyrant, harpies, crone and three squads of gargoyles (who get Objective Secured). This was joined by another couple of flyrants, warriors and genestealers. We'd be playing Relic with Vanguard deployment.

We ended up going second which meant everything was in the air in our first turn. We infiltated some Kroot which soaked up a decent amount of fire but eventually died for First Blood. This did mean our Wave Serpent survived though but losing FB in Relic is never good. The first few turns of the game were pretty bloodless with our first two shooting phases only causing a single wound. We'd forgotten that Grounding Tests are only taken when wounds are caused which messed up our plans significantly. Had we realised we'd have focussed fire more and positioned the Wraithknight differently. Ah well.

Eventually our opponents decided to land with all of their FMCs and that's when tables started to turn. The crisis team killed a crone and the Wraithknight charged a couple and easily instant killed them. The riptides were massively underwhelming (although they did fall victim of Paroxysm). They failed to cause many wounds at all which was partly due to FNP on their part and some disgustingly good Jink saves. Even so the flyrants were fairly unscathed thanks to poor Riptide fire. Luckily for us their gargoyles mishapped meaning they only had one unit of them near the Relic. We ended up with the Wraithguard contesting it with the Warriors. The riptides had a chance to redeem themselves by getting us Slay the Warlord but despite wounding 5 times (with only 3 wounds left) the Tyrant had the Warlord Trait that gives him FNP and he passed all 5!!

The game ended with neither of us having the Relic but they'd got all three secondaries and we'd only managed Linebreaker with some Kroot. A 3-1 loss to start the day is never good but thankfully with it being Relic we'd only missed out on 5 VPs. Still, it was an incredibly frustrating game as their rolling was amazing and our turns were short in comparison making us feel like spectators a lot. Nothing against our opponents though who were great.

Game Two - Ripped Tights vs. DE/Necrons

This was a much better matchup than our first game. Our opponents #### and ### were running Drazhar with 3 incubi in a venom, two venoms with 5 kabalites, two lots of 3 reavers, two night scythes with warriors, a destroyer lord with wraiths and an annihilation barge. We'd be playing Big Guns Never Tire (4 objectives) on Dawn of War.

Our opponents won the roll off but gave us first turn. They had a central piece of LoS blocking cover so we split our force on the flanks so that there'd be few places to hide. In the first turn we were able to kill a couple of wraiths and Drazhar's venom (for First Blood). Our opponents struggled to do much in response and the wraiths moved into the central ruin for cover. We had repeated attempts to destroy the annihilation barge but despite penetrating it several times it managed to Jink. The commander and his team dealt with the rest of the venoms. The kroot came on and slowly moved up to claim two of the objectives.

Their flyers arrived one at a time allowing us to force them to Jink with the Riptides. Even so, the combination of the flyer and the barge killed off the commander and his team. The Riptides slowly picked off the Dark Eldar but when presented with an opportunity to pie plate Drazhar and his incubi the weapon got hot despite having a re-roll! The Riptides were then reduced to charging the Reavers to kill them off.

Meanwhile in the centre the wraiths were left with only the wave serpent to charge and once it was wrecked the wraithguard punished them by kill most of them off with their d-scythes. The Spiritseer was pretty impotent though having rolled terribly on Runes of Battle. The wraiths attempted to charge the wraithguard but wall of death meant they were wiped out, although the lord got back up. The wraithguard charged into the annihilation barge with the Spiritseer making up for his lack of psychic power by killing the barge before being charged by the lord and some nearby warriors. Miraculously the seer passed his Mindshackle test and killed the lord with the rest of the squad sweeping the warriors.

The wraithknight killed of Drazhar in combat and this pretty much wrapped up the game but the central objective was contested by two Objective Secured units (wraithguard/necron warriors). This gave us the other three though and all three secondaries. We should've also scored a bonus point for the annihilation barge but we forgot!

Game Three - Ripped Tights vs. Carcharadons

Our opponents had a pre-heresy World Eaters force which they were playing as Carcharadons. The whole army was stunning to look at which always makes for a better game I think. They were running a mortis dread, rapier platform, land raider with captain and tactical squad, rhino with tactical squad, a sicaran battle tank and an Imperial Knight. We were playing Emperor's Will on Hammer & Anvil.

The wave serpent fired on the rapier and amazingly managed to kill it off for First Blood. The riptides set up to use their Ordnance blasts on the landraider (to clip the rhino too) but one was Pinned thanks to their Warlord Trait. The Imperial Knight set up to go for the wraithknight and this allowed us to play keep away from it for the whole game. We got a couple of penetrating hits on it but could only score 6 on the damage table each time. Eventually on turn 4 we knew we couldn't outrun it anymore so we set up to charge with the wraithknight who took it out before it could strike back.

Elsewhere the commander and his team down the dreadnought. The wave serpent advanced at full speed to get the wraithguard near their objective and more importantly their troops. The captain and his squad jumped out of the land raider and were subsequently wiped out by the wraithguard's d-scythes. The kroot came on nearby too but were wiped out over a couple of turns without doing much. The other kroot were holed up in a dilapidated building in our deployment zone holding the objective.

The riptides were yet again subpar with lots of getting hot, failing novas and generally underperforming. The crisis suits were great again though being able to strip hull points from the Sicaran and bring it down. The squad in the rhino were gunned down by the wraithguard and the crisis suits combined so that at the end of turn 5 they only had the land raider, a couple of marines and the rhino left. The crisis team dealt with the rhino and marines whilst the wraithknight charged the land raider and finished it off to make it a tabling. With both objectives and all three secondaries we took a 9-0 win.

Conclusion
Can't really complain at that start to the day. We dropped quite a few VPs in the first game but made a good effort to recoup those in the other games. As ever a lot of it comes down to what you're paired against and with random allocation it really is luck of the draw.

The stars of the day had to be the wraithguard and spiritseer. He did little with psychic powers (although shrouding was useful in game 3) but taking out the wraiths, lord and annihilation barge in game two was probably match winning. The crisis suits and wraithknight would be a close second but the riptides were terrible on day one. Let's hope they can redeem themselves on day two.

Battle Report - Big Stuff Game (Tau/IK vs. Eldar/GK - 1,850pts)

As I've mentioned in previous posts, I don't like to cast judgement on any new units until I've had a game or two with or against it. Obviously you get a fair idea from reading the rules but often there are things that you haven't considered when considering the unit in a vacuum. Anyway, the unit in question for this battle report was the Imperial Knight. Since I haven't persuaded myself to buy one yet I was borrowing Jamie's (head over to his blog to read more about it).

Whilst we want to test the Imperial Knight in tournament like conditions we couldn't resist the opportunity to field a ton of big units. Here's a group shot of the big guys in question (I quite like how Matt's wraithknights look like their posing for the photo!):


Anyway, my list was essentially the same as in Monday's batrep but with one less fire warrior unit and a few upgrades on the suits etc. Matt's list featured the same two wraithknights but this time they were joined by an avatar and a dreadknight along with some extra wave serpents and dark reapers.

Battle Report

We'd be playing a 3 objective Crusade on Dawn of War. Matt would be taking the first turn but just in case he castled up his forces in the centre of the board. Of course with Coteaz involved I failed to seize. Matt's dreadknight advanced towards one of my riptides whilst incinerating some pathfinders on the way. The rest of the army focussed on the Imperial Knight stripping away half of it's hull points before it'd even moved. Elsewhere more pathfinders died but neither ran denying Matt First Blood. Thanks to some poor target prioritisation on my part I failed to get it either. I managed to wound both the dreadknight and one of the wraithknights but neither fell. All the Imperial Knight managed to achieve was a single wound on the wraithknight but he was advancing towards his foe hoping to get stuck into combat.

It wouldn't get much of an opportunity though. The wraithknights fired at it bringing it down to a single HP before charging in. One of them took the remaining HP with Hammer of Wrath and that was that. Bit of a damp squib but that's how it goes sometimes. The resultant explosion took a wound each from the wraithknights but it was hardly making it worth the 375pts! I managed to get some revenge by downing the dreadknight but one of my riptides followed shortly afterwards. At this point I was feeling very much on the back foot. The firepower from the avatar on the lascannon and all those wave serpents was simply too much for my Tau. Shadowsun and her team weren't even able to down a wraithknight when they arrived which didn't help matters. Especially not when it made her pay by killing her in combat (again!).

The other wraithknight had a couple of rounds of combat with my remaining riptide but once that fell I was all but defeated. There was a brief highlight for me though. A squad of outflanking kroot were able to down a wave serpent by glancing it to death with rear armour shots but it was too little too late. With both wraithknights free to smash what they liked the game was lost. I couldn't kill off Matt's troops and mine were soon gone. We played it through to the end and my inevitable tabling.

Conclusion
It's a shame to have lost this one. Before I saw Matt's army I felt pretty confident having managed to squeeze a knight into an already strong Tau list. Once I'd seen Matt's list though I knew I'd struggle, especially without First Turn. The result felt pretty much decided from the start which is a shame since one-sided games are rarely fun for either player.

The point of the game though was to test out the Imperial Knight. Despite what you might think (since they aren't permitted at BW7) I was really expecting much from it. Of course it's tough for some armies to kill but against others it'll die just as quick as most vehicles. Matt's list had a disgusting amount of high strength fire power. Those S10 shots from the wraithknights are perfect for bringing it down. Once in combat their I5 and S10 makes them probably the best way of downing one. It's a shame that one of them kicked in the shin (Hammer of Wrath) before it got to strike. I'd have loved to smash up a couple of wraithknights before it fell.

I initially thought that the Paladin was the better of the two variants since the rapid fire battle cannon would be great against massed MEQ infantry. I'm now leaning towards the Errant though. The 36" large blast melta seems far better now I think about it. I don't actually know what made me think the Paladin would be superior actually. With so many wave serpents around (and I'm sure a lot of Leman Russes after the AM book) having the melta makes it that much more potent. This is especially true when you consider it'll be those vehicles that create the biggest problem for both it and the army it fights alongside.

The Imperial Knight may have died pretty easily in this game but I can still envision it cutting swathes through various other armies. I suppose, like anything else, there'll be a rock-paper-scissors kind of thing. For some armies it'll be no problem and others it'll be their worse nightmare. I think the key is that, like any big model, it proves a huge distraction for your opponent. They can't simply ignore it which means the rest of your list gets a bit of a breather. Pack the list out with mech and your opponent's presumably limited anti-tank weaponry will be left with a choice. Kill the knight and spare the rest or vice versa.

Our last game of the day was a somewhat fluffier affair (to my relief). I'll be writing that up on Friday night so be sure to come back after the weekend to see how the Inquisition fare against an Ork horde led by a warboss with a dark secret.

Battle Report - Tau vs. Eldar/AM (1,850pts)

In the run up to Blog Wars Matt and I always try to get a few games in with the scenarios to ensure there's no final tweaks that are needed. Last Sunday we played through Emperor's Relic with my BW6 Tau list taking on Matt's combination of Eldar and Guard (I just can't call them Astra Militarum). Matt's list was something along the lines of:

Karandras

18 Guardians (with wave serpent but not in it)

5 Dire Avengers (in wave serpent)

Two wraithknights with heavy wraithcannons
2 Leman Russ Eradicators (I think, the ones with the plasma cannons)
Coteaz
Warrior Acolytes
10 Veterans

Since this was Blog Wars 7 practice we'd be playing Emperor's Relic which is Vanguard deployment with a central objective with 10 VPs to either side and an objective each. Your home objective is worth 5 VP whilst your opponent's objective is worth 15 VP to you.

Battle Report

I got the first turn and made light work of one of the wraithknights with a combination of crisis missile team and riptides. That's a heck of a start! Meanwhile Karandras had infiltrated on my flank so I began to send my devilfish in his direction. Matt's first turn was focussed on taking out my pathfinders with two of the squads being killed off an the third reduced in number.

Shadowsun arrived at this point but couldn't risk deepstriking so close to the leman russes and opted to target the wave serpents. I rolled a hit which would've actually allowed me to hit the AM tanks but hindsight is always 20:20. Anyway, Shadowsun shot one of her fusion blasters at the empty wave serpent whilst the rest of her team focussed on the occupied one. The empty one passed its Jink save but the other blew up with fire from the rest of my army killing all but one of the dire avengers in the crater. Meanwhile the fire warriors piled out of their transports to hit Karandras and his guardians. Fortunately for me the warlock had failed his Conceal power so they'd only benefit from Karandras' stealth. This allowed me to wipe the entire squad out including Karandras giving me Slay the Warlord thanks to the Kroot who'd arrived behind them. In the meantime the rest of my army focussed on the wraithknights apart from one of the riptides who attempted to use his ordnance blast to down a leman russ but failed. This left the wraithknight alive and close to Shadowsun.

Matt began his second turn with Coteaz attempting to cast Prescience and Forewarning on the Leman Russes. Somehow he managed to double-six both rolls meaning not only did the powers fail but he also left Coteaz on a single wound! This was of little consolation to Shadowsun though who found herself smacked down by the wraithlord. She'd have been fine if she'd not be caught in a Sweeping Advance as on her own she'd have been able to use Our Weapons Are Useless (since the crisis suits had been killed). She was caught though giving Matt Slay the Warlord too. Her death certainly saved either the leman russes or wraithknight next turn.

The remaining fire warriors hopped back in the transports to try and survive long enough to grab some objectives. More Kroot arrived but Coteaz informed them that he'd been expecting them and eight of the ten were gunned down as they walked on the field.

I eventually managed to kill off the other wraithknight but not before one of the riptides had bought it. I'd failed miserably on a couple of occasions to kill the tanks so they rolled in and opened up on the riptides. Matt realised at this point that he'd been forgetting to fire their lascannons which probably would've resulted in the death of the riptides a turn or two sooner.

A combination of fire warriors and drones managed to finish off some acolytes and Coteaz who broke off to try and kill the Ethereal's squad. The game ended soon after at the top of T5 with me controlling my own objective whilst Matt's veterans held his. Neither of us could keep the central one. With all three secondaries I'd scored 8 of the possible 33 available VPs.

Conclusion
Had I focussed on the wraithknights on the second turn instead of worrying about Karandras I'd have probably saved Shadowsun and the game would've been over far sooner. Still the game felt pretty one-sided at the start with me killing a wraithknight straight off. Well at first it did anyway. With me exposing the fire warriors early I lacked anti-infantry firepower late on to deal with the veterans. The kroot were stupid to arrive in range of Coteaz but I simply forgot despite Matt having reminded me once that he had that rule.

Still, it was great that the game ended up pretty close towards the end. Matt was in a position where he might've taken the central objective himself were it not for my drones getting lucky. Obviously I was pleased to win the game but the main thing to take away from this battle was how well this mission works. You've got to have some way of getting to your opponent's objective if you want to score well. Even though I killed off a good chunk of Matt's army I only scored 8/33 points. You've got to push for the objectives sooner to clear them or have some way of getting to them earlier to claim them. It's certainly an improvement on both Relic (which normally comes down to First Blood) and Emperor's Will (which usually involves holding your own objective and again comes down to First Blood).

Having the objectives worth more points makes the secondaries fairly inconsequential. Sure you can both just hold on to your own objectives but then the winner will only be scoring 8 VPs. As you know I'm a big fan of quantifying victories. I don't like straight W/D/L but prefer to know just how significant a victory (or indeed loss) actually was.

We got three games in so there's another couple of reports to come. The next one involved a few big guys....