I finally got in a couple more practise games, after 5 failed attempts. I had made some changes to my list after a hand full of realisations, and some new rules. Since my last game I have had time to peruse the ITC terrain rules a little closer and have learnt that the Wheat City Open will be allowing the use of the Beta Bolter rule. Wanting to try that out I took a unit of bikes and a unit of terminators, and they did not disappoint.
With that out of the way, lets take a look at my list. I had a Alpha Legion Battalion Detachment lead by a Lord with Jump pack, combi-bolter and Hydra blade but I'm considering swapping him for a Lord on a bike. He was my warlord with the extra attack WL trait. He was backed up in the leadership department by 2 sorcerers. For troops I had 2 units of 10 Cultists and a unit of 30 cultists. I had the aforementioned Terminators and bikes, each 5 models. I gave the bike a couple plasma guns just for kicks, but I was really looking for those combi-bolters, and the terminators had combi-bolters with an assortment of cheaper combat weapons. I also had a unit of 7 Raptors with 3 plasma guns. Rounding out that battalion is 2 Hellforged Scorpius tanks, which are really good and expensive whirlwinds. I had a second battalion that was Daemons, it had a Khorne Herald, Khorne Daemon Prince with the Relic Axe, 2 units of Nurglings and a unit of 24 Bloodletters.
Now before you get on my case I know Raptors are not great, but I really think they have a place in the ITC rules, particularly in my army because they are able to jump through ruins walls and flush out those units hiding inside. Even as a last resort they are a decent unit to cause some pressure against my opponent and make him deal with them. The general plan with this army is to use the Cultists and combi-bolter units to open up a hole in the deep strike defence line so the Bloodletters can get in and wreak some havoc.
My opponent, Keenan, was playing a vehicle heavy Guard list with one of the fancy new Vilgilus detachments that allows his tanks within 6" of his warlord to re-roll his failed hit rolls during overwatch. He had 2 battalions, both of which were Cadia, and I'm not 100 % sure which units were where, but he had Pask and 3 other tank commanders, a company commander and a Priamis Psyker for his HQ. Then he had 6 units of Guardsmen, 3 units of mortars, 3 basilisks, and 3 manticores.
For my secondary missions I chose butcher's bill, big game hunter, and reaper. My army does not have a whole lot of anti-tank other than the Daemon Prince, but I figured that 6 of his tanks are rather weak and I should be able to grind them down especially if the Bloodletters can get into them with their potential of extra damage attacks.
So during deployment I had a dilemma which was; I could either go balls to the walls and hope for first turn, or deploy cagey in case I go second. His list actually made this decision really hard to make because he had so much that straight up does not care about LOS so typically you would line up on the line because it doesn't really matter where you deploy. This is when I realised exactly why those damn units of IG mortar teams are so popular. With the bottom floor of ruins blocking LOS, as per the ITC terrain rules, anything that can target a unit that isn't in LOS is amazing. However, because he also had 4 tank commanders I can't deploy in the open. Either way, I'm going to get the shit shelled out of me unless I get the first turn. I decide to play it careful and deploy as much out of sight as I can. Which paid off because he got the first turn and I used the Defended Position strat which really came in handy.
This game went all my way, and I don't think I made too many large mistakes this game. He put some damage in on my Cultists, but not enough to force me to use 2 CP to auto pass. I used Tide of Traitors, putting my cultists on me left flank, and used Warptime to move the bikes right up the middle. The cultists wiped a unit and the bikes wiped out a unit and charged a second, able to wrap them up and avoid being shot for a couple turns. My Scorpius was able to take out 2 of the mortar teams.
Turn 2 was a big one for me. I deep struck the Bloodletters and was able to charge them into 2 units but pile in and consolidate into a 3rd and wrap it up, keeping them safe. This also kept my Daemon Prince safe who charged in to 2 tanks turn 3 and started earning me some points. That pretty much sums up the game.
My second test game was using the same list against Stephen, an AdMech player. He had 2 Battalions and a cheap Gallant Knight. Battalion 1 was Stygies and had a big unit of Kastellans and a bunch of Vanguard. The second Battalion was Ryza and had a small unit of Kastellans with a large unit of Destroyers with plasma and some rangers with sniper rifles. This game came down to 4 things; the large LOS blocking piece of terrain that I was able to hide behind, my Khorne Deamon Prince killing the Gallant in one round of combat on turn 2, and the Bloodletters killing 3 of the Kastellan robots when they charged through a ruin to avoid overwatch. Lastly the terminators were able to charge the Destroyers, while doing no damage, it stopped them from shooting on turn 3.
Overall, the bikes were awesome. I'm not sure that the Terminators are still worth their points as that 5 man unit is 181 points, while a 5 man bike squad is 137 with 2 plasma guns. What I think I might do is drop the terminators and take another unit of bikes and bump up my cultist squad to 40.
During the second game, we were playing the pointy hammer and anvil deployment, and I should have used the Forward Operatives to deploy the Raptors. This would have given them a 9" move before the game started allowing me to move into the large ruin in the centre of the table. From their they would have been safe from any shooting and could have struck out and assassinated several characters that were scattered around the table.
I have noticed a couple things with my list. I have quite a few units off the table which has it's ups and downs. On one hand, they can't get shot and killed, on the other, if he pressures my deployment zone I won't have as much return firepower turn 1. I also have to make sure that I can carve out a gap in the screens so that my deep strikers have somewhere to land. This will primarily be done with the Bikes, the Cultists who just Tide of Traitors over to the other side of the table, and the Scorpius tanks.
I have made a few changes to my list, and my next post will likely be of the event itself. Wish me luck, and maybe I'll see you there.
Til next time, keep them dice rollin.
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