The game! Guard Vs GSC

So the game itself! As you can see from the photos below, there was a lot of terrain on the tables and there was a real cities of death feel to it, my opponent did really a fabulous job on the table. As I said, we went for the city of death option from the rule book, which with a tank heavy army and a superheavy!

Some views of the table

This was actually pre-deployment, the units have just been dumped down on the table.

The main street

My opponents view of the battlefield.

The guard lined up ready to deploy. 

The GSC ready to hide.

Some deployment photos.

The thin green line, screening the tanks.

The guard deployed. The Valkyrie is actually part of the scenery but it did help to create a cool narative.

GSC post their deployment? Each genestealer represents a 'blip' counter or a unit, only the two sentinels are actually deployed as is.

After the big reveal! Traitor guard and GSC units everywhere!

The Valkyrie. 

The Valkyrie was actually part of the terrain and it's placement was completely random, however, once the deployment zones has been decided it became clear that it would make a cool focal point for the game. Sitting at the centre of the guard lines, a story quickly developed. A downed Valkyrie, carrying vital supplies in danger of being captured by the forces of the four armed Emperor and used against the forces of the imperium. As such a force of astra militarum have been deployed to secure the cargo, unfortunately they may not be the best forces for the job, manoeuvring their heavy vehicles through the narrow streets of the city.

Turn 1

Turn one was pretty quiet. The GSC moved up to get in range of the guard and took some pot shots, doing very little damage to the vehicles, knocking out some of the infantry squads but failing to score first blood.

The tanks remain but the thing green line got a little bit thinner.

In reply the tanks selected their targets and opened up, doing some damage to the enemy, including scoring first blood and setting themselves up nicely for turn 2.

Some holes start to appear in the GSC lines.

Turn 2

After settling in nice, things take a turn for the worse. The psychic might of the brood reaches out and drives the crew of the Hellhammer in to a frenzy and guns blaze in all directions! Yeah, not fun having a unit turned upon yourself, especially when it's a super heavy! It's a bit of a strange rule this, as it states that it can shoot as if the shooting  phase, so all of its guns, or make 1 close combat attack if it's in combat, just 1! Why can it shoot all its guns as per the shooting phase but only make 1 attack and not just attack as if the fight phase? Anyway, the hellhound killed a chunk of my army including my warlord! That's what a Hellhammer cannon to the face will do! Apart from that though not a lot happened.

Hellhammer cannon to the face!

In reply I gunned down a chunk more of the army, keeping a good gap between me and the GSC units or so I thought anyway.

Turn 3

I had been kind of concentrating on the closer units in addition to those that I thought would be most dangerous, which is why I ignored the likes of the mortars, as they can't do much to leman Russ battle tanks. However, the whole genestealer advancing and charging thing crept up on me again, despite already knowing they could.

Genestealers knocking on the door.

Genestealers knocking on heaven's door

I played a couple (I think?) Of stratagems when my opponent tried to charge in 4 units to my Hellhammer. In total he charges a GSC unit, a blood brothers guard unit, a patriarch and a brood of genestealers. Unfortunately, the GSC and Guard units were bother destroyed, the guard unit actually failed there charge. The patriarch tries next and was wiped from the board, despite throwing a number of hits across to the genestealers next to it. The remaining genestealers were then dispatched with easy, after also failing there charge, with snake eyes, twice. 6 heavy Bolters, 2 lascannons, an autocannon, a Demolisher cannon, a Hellhammer cannon and of course the little lasgun out the back really can put out a hell of a lot of firepower, even on overwatch.

The clean up begins.

After the failed charges destroyed a chunk of the forward units and also killed off the warlord, the guard went about killing off the rest of the GSC units, finishing off a couple of sentinels and some of the more depleted infantry units, although the shooting was less than satisfactory this turn, with the Hellhammer failing to do as much damage as it should have.

By this point it was getting late, nearing midnight at a rapid rate so we decided to call it there. As the game stood, I had 2 objectives and contested a third, while my opponent controlled just 1. This meant that the scores were 8 (2 objectives, first blood, slay the warlord) to 5 (1 objective, slay the warlord, line breaker) in favour of the guard. However, we reasoned it out over the next two turns and it would have probably ended up a lot closer, something like 8 to 11 or 11 all, depending upon if my opponent could claim the final objective up on the top floor of one of the ruins. In fact, it may even have ended 14 to 8 or even 17 to 5 in favour of the GSC but only if my shooting had been terrible and he had a lot of luck with his shooting and advance rolls.

As it was we decided that it would likely have been 11 to 8 in favour of the cult, however, I would claim the moral victory for killing the patriarch and holding the Valkyrie crash site, even if I didn't hold enough actual objectives to win. It's a shame we didn't get to finish the game as it was shaping up to be a close finish but any later and the wife probably would have killed me!

Eagle Knights Vs Ultramarines 1000pts

This was the last in a run off games that I have had recently. I played this a couple of weeks ago now but due to the new job and all, I have not had time to write it up. 

The game was between the Eagle Knights and a force of Ultramarines, consisting of 2 scout squads, one with sniper rifles and one with bolt pistols and chain swords, 2 bike squads with 4 bikes and an attack bike, a rhine and a whirlwind, all lead by a captain on a bike. The game itself was a bit of a white wash, with the Knights getting firmly beaten yet again. Granted this was due to me making a number of mistakes and forgetting a couple of rules. 

The table and terrain

The Ultramarines deployment

The Eagle Knights Deployment

We played Deadlock with Vanguard Strike Deployment. Now I decided to keep the death guard on the table again, although it was a bit of a gamble as I wanted to go first but we had an equal number of units and my opponent had started deploying first. In the end I managed to win the roll off and get first turn. With this I played Forlorn Fury and charged the Death Company forward ready for a first turn charge!

My cards turn 1 and they were not a good set of cards to pull. I had hopes that I could achieve a few cards first turn but that was not to be.

Turn 1

While I was quite confident of success on turn one, targeting the scouts in the centre and claiming the objective they were sitting on, I failed miserably. Even though the scouts did not have camo cloaks, 4 heavy bolters failed to do any damage to the squad! My opponent passed over 6 4+ saves to keep all of them alive and deny me the option to charge with my death company, as there was no space to place any of my models on the roof of the building. In stead I charged his bikes and Rhino, unfortunately through bad placement I had a thunder hammer on the wrong side of the combat and only had one of the two available to attack the rhino. This one hammer managed to take over half the wounds off the rhino and if I had both of them there then I would have been able to destroy it. As it was I didn't manage to do enough damage to either the bikes or the rhino to destroy either. This meant that in my opponents turn he was able, using the Ultramarine chapter tactic, fall back and fire at the Death Company, wiping them from the board. Although the unit was destroyed, my opponent made a mistake by wiping the unit out with shooting when he had Blood and Guts in his hand!

First turn.

Turn 2

With the failure of the Death Company in turn 1, I tried again to take out the scouts with my assault marines, which had been waiting in reserve. This went a little better, as the heavy bolter were actually able to take out enough to get a couple of assault marines on the roof, although not really enough to do what needed to be done and the unit was not wiped out and instead manage to inflict a number of wounds on the assault marines. This failure to kill of the scouts in one go would come back to bite me some more in the next turn or two. In addition the bikes started to move up the field. I was still struggling for points at this stage, although the only consolation was that my opponent was too.

Turn 2, The melee in the middle continues.

A close up of the melee

Turn 3

The game continued in pretty much the same fashion as previously. The Melee in the middle continued and through attrition the assault marines finally managed to wipe out the scots, but only one assault marine remained. The bikes and Captain had helped by wiping out a couple of marines that were left at the bottom of the building and it was advantageous that bikes can no longer climb ruins as otherwise they would just have wiped out the unit. At this point the game was really up and I was just trying to cause as much damage as I possibly could and try and score some points for the 40k ladder that the club was running.

Turn 4

Turn 4 and the game was all but finished. The bikes had moved on from the centre of the board and had converged on the last stand of the Knights. By this point I had a 5 man tactical squad, a 5 man devastator squad, Captain, Lieutenant, Chaplain, a single assault marine and a tactical squad with 1 man in. While my opponent had a rhino, whirlwind, two bike squads, one with 2 bikes and an assault bike and one with 4 bikes and an assault bike, plus the Captain on his bike. Oh and a scout snipe squad, who had taken out the last remnants of a tactical squad in combat. One of the bike squads charged in on the tactical squad to try and take out the squad to get the objective. Some how they manage to survive and kept hold of the objective, denying my opponent a point.


Turn 5

I was surprised that the game had gone this far. At this point I really just was fighting for survival and decided to throw every thing in to combat to stop the Ultramarines claiming the objective and so the devastators, captain and lieutenant charged in to combat. The assault marine and chaplain just stayed in the centre and just hung out to stop me getting tabled! The ultramarine decided to withdraw from combat and unload into all the remaining Knights. At this point the bikes had taken a bit of a pounding, and only 4 bikes and an attack bike remained, although with twin bolter in rapid fire range, they did take quite a few casualties.

After the movement phase of the Ultramarines turn 5

End Game

Well at the end of turn 5 we didn't bother rolling to see if the game continued. There was no doubt that the Knights had suffered another crushing defeat, although I cant remember of the top of my head what the final score was but I think it was something like 6 or 7 to 1 in favour of the boys in blue. I think that there was a few lessons learned, the primary one being that I should not split the attacks of the Death Company, either that or I should make sure that the right weapons are in the right place! The cards were not in my favour either this match and I could not achieve enough cards to draw new cards as I was forced to discard a card at the end of every turn and as I could not achieve any cards, I was forced to stick with the ones that I had draw originally, which I really struggled to achieve. 

More lessons learned this game, although with starting work, I don't know when I will get another game in to put some of these lessons in to practice.

How the Big FAQ will effect me.

Well, we've had a few days to digest the new FAQ and look at the repercussions to our armies. While most of us who are not tournament players will probably find that there has been very little impact, there are a few tweaks that no doubt will need to be made.

First off, I will not be including the "rule of 3" in to the equation, as I'm not a tournament player and neither are any of the other players at my club. Were currently discussing the rules but it looks like most people are happy with the beta rules but we still won't be including the organised events rules, even in our ladder system. I will however be including the new beta rules, as these will become permanent rules in the next FAQ, which will probably be Chapter Approved 2018, although I suspect that they will be altered slightly, especially the reserves rule.

I'll start with the easiest army, namely the Stone Dragons as they haven't even been built yet and as such don't have a list. I have an idea of how I want to run them, namely elite infantry (non-TDA) but I'm still waiting for the Space Wolves codex before I finalise anything. So the Big FAQ will have no effect here.

The next list to look at is the Hjaltland LI. This list will also not be effected very much, apart from the points saved from the commissars. There are no tactical reserves in this list as everything starts on the table, therefore the list will remain unchanged and the play store of the army will continue as is.

The Hrossey Yeomanry will also continue as is, although if we were using the rule of 3 I would have some problems as I have 4 vets squads. Luckily were not and so there is no need to change the list.

Now we get in to the lists that will be seeing some changes. First up are the Dark Guardians. This list is based around bikes and termies. At present there are 4 terminator squads and two terminator characters forming 6 drops for a total of 66pl and 4 bike squads and a bike character for 5 drops and 27pl. Now the original plan was to just throw a random character in to make up the extra drop. Now however, I also have to make up 39pl. There is some good news however, as a friend of mine has offered me some extra bikes, including some attack bikes, boosting me to 5 bike squads and an attack bike squad. When including the bike character, it puts me to 7 drops and 61pl. This means that I am only 5pl short of the target. I'm still  not sure how I'm going to get around this problem yet, but it gets me closer to the target. Unfortunately I'm also right up against my self imposed 2000 point limit. Right now though the army is still in the unpainted and unplayed stage, so I can have a think and come back to it later, probably after CA18, so the problem may well have even sorted itself by then.

Next up are the Dagr Ormr Militarum Tempestus force with Hildasay PDF support. Now this is also going to prove problematic, as the idea is similar to the Dark Guardians, in that the PDF heavy weapons teams sit back and the scions drop in. At present the scions for 42pl and 10 drops, where as the rest of the army forms 42pl and 14 drops. So things are balanced on a knife edge, so to speak. I want to add in some transports, some Taurox Primes, 4 to be precise, 2 with Gatling cannons and 2 with battle cannons. This will push up the number of non-deep striking units and also the pl for these units, which should put me in the clear for running this list at 2000 points. Obviously dropping the points level will be require some calculations rather than just dropping units as I feel like it but on the whole this list does a lot better than I expected it would.

The last list to look at is the Eagle Knights chapter. Now these guys were originally conceived as the full on drop army, in the classic descent of angles style, but have been through several modifications, with the 7th BA codex and 8th index and now the 8th BA codex. Although there have been a lot of changes, one thing is for sure, I still have a lot of jump pack units. In my last game at 1500 points, I dropped 6 units on the board with 6 in reserve but that meant 32pl on the board and 64pl in reserve. Now 27 of the pl off the board were in the 15 man death company squad, which is about a third of the total points in total on unit! Even more so when you consider that they always drop in with a chaplain. To place it off the board I would have had to deploy 5 units on the board and completely had to rethink the rest of my deployment. One get around would be to take 6 man tactical squads, as this takes the squad from 5pl and 83 points to 9pl and 93 points each (running the same load out), a big jump in pl for a few points, 12pl for 39 points across 3 squads. It is a legitimate tactics but it feel like cheating, as I'm fudging the numbers somewhat.

The basic issue is though, that the army does not work as intended now. I can get around a few of the problems with stratagems and such but it really is no longer a descent of angles list anymore. I have always been planning more units, a second devastator squad and a sternguard squad, possibly even a non-jump pack assast squad. Now these units will become  even more essential to forming a valid and viable list. I will still be playing the knights as my main army for the moment as I have a lot to learn about them, sonin some respects it's good that these changes have happened now, rather than further down the line when I've got use to the current force!

I'll update my thoughts after I've played a few games with the new rules, which at the current rate shouldn't be to long!

1000pt Eagle Knights Vs Eldar

So this was my second game with the Eagle Knights, played last weekend. It was a 1000 point game against an Eldar army. It was looking like it was going to be a good game but things worked out badly in the end, mostly due to errors on my part. Ill go in to the errors later but first the army lists.

My list consisted of a supreme command detachment of a Captain with jump pack, Librarian with jump pack and Lieutenant with jump pack (spotting a theme here?). I also had a Vanguard Detachment with a Chaplain with jump pack, a 6 man Death Company with 3 plasma pistols and 3 power mauls and jump packs, a 5 man Death Company with 2 Thunder Hammers with jump packs, a 5 man Vanguard squad with 2 sets of power claws, a power fist and 2 power axes, all with jump packs and finally a 10 man Assault Squad also with jump packs.

My opponent had a Aultach on Skyrunner, a Farseer, 3 Dire Avengers, 2x 5 man squads and a 10 man squad, a 5 man Fire Dragons squad, a 10 man Striking Scorpions squad and a 10 man Dark Reapers squad.

Turn 1

Despite finishing setting up first, we decided to go with the Chapter Approved type roll off and I managed to secure first turn. I had decided to keep my Death Company squads, Librarian and Chaplain in to reserve and with first turn I decided to drop them in behind the main threat, the Dark Reapers. This was my first mistake and probably my biggest! Dark Reapers are a big threat, with the -2 ap missiles, long range and there always hit on a 3 rule. I wanted them gone quick and decided to throw the 6 man DC squad, Librarian and Chaplain at them. However, I got hit with Forewarned, a very powerful stratagem. This enabled the Dark Reapers to fire at the DC squad, wiping out 5 of the 6 members, leaving just one with a power maul. The Librarian and Chaplain remained, but the majority of the hitting power was gone. I still went for the charge but only the Chaplain got in. This was the only part of the plan that went right, as the Chaplain was wearing the Angles Wings jump pack, meaning no overwatch from the Dark Reapers and in the ensuing fight, he managed to put down 3 Reapers on his own. Unfortunately, the as the rest of the squad failed there charges, including the other DC squad going in on one of the Avenger squads, the first turn carnage turned out to be exactly that, just it was BA blood that was spilled and not Eldar.

In the Eldar turn I got hit with a second stratagem that pretty much finished me. Even though I had failed to eliminate the Dark Reapers, I though that I had at least stopped them shooting but no, my opponent playeea second stratagem, enabling the Reapers to fire, wiping out the Chaplain and last DC marine, with the newly arrived unit of Friends Dragons (who had been set-up in the Webway) turned the librarian in to dust. The second squad of DC marines also fell to the combined fire of the Avengers and newly arrived Striking Scorpions.

At the start of the bottom of turn 1

Just before the carnage started again.

My remaining forces at the end of turn 1

The Eldar forces at the end of turn 1

Turn 2

By this point the battle plan was in tatters. The DC should have pounded the Reapers to dust and now be starting on the squad of Avengers in the far building and the chaplain and Librarian should be chasing down the Farseer and Aultach. Instead I had nothing in range to threaten any Eldar models. So I decided to just throw caution to the wind and go for it, using my last command points to jump my vanguard vets forward, this time making sure that they were out of site of the Reapers. They managed to get in to combat, but due to some rather rubbish dice rolls, I managed not to wipe out the Reapers!

The end of the top of turn 2 and the Vanguard vets are looking a little isolated.

The view of my deployment area and there isn't much left.

You can see one of my assault marines combat squads moving up the table. They just failed to reach cover in the central building.

The Eldar didn't hold off on the punishment and while the Dark Reapers couldn't fire after falling back, they didn't need to, as the combined fire of the Aultach and Avengers took out the last two vanguard vets. The Fire Dragons moved to capture and hold an objective and the Avengers and Scorpions on my left flank took out the assault squad on that flank.

Bottom of turn 2 and it's looking dire.

Turn 3 and I was really in trouble. I had half and assault squad, a captain and a lieutenant. I moved up to see what I could do, which wasn't a lot. In reply the Eldar dropped there last unit in, a full unit of Dire Avengers. These dropped in to the centre and tried to kill off my last units. Fortunately they failed, everything else just moved up to prepare for the killing blow.

Turn 4

I knew that this was going to be the final turn and I decided that I really didn't have many options, so i did the proper thing and charged everything in tot he only unit I could, the newly arrived Dire Avengers. The assault marines went in first and managed to survive overwatch, taking just 1 wound, the captain followed suit. The lieutenant however, was just to far away and failed his 10 inch charge. The Angles did there stuff taking out the full unit with ease, the assault marines taking down half a dozen or so and the captain making short work of the rest. They were however now out in the open and exposed. So the scorpions and Farseer finished off the captain and a few of the marines whole the fire dragons toasted the lieutenant and the last remaining marines. And with this the game ended in a crushing defeat.

The final result. Lots of Eldar and no Blood Angles.

The final score at the end of turn 4. The red dice is mine.

In the end the Eldar lost just a Dire Avengers squad and 7 Dark Reapers, while I was tabled. Not really what I would call a good result under any circumstances. So what went wrong? Well, quite a lot really.

The big mistake was deep striking all the death company. I should have used the Forlorn Fury stratagem and placed the death company on the table. Of I had done this I could have moved one squad right up the table withing just a couple of inches of the Reapers and then used the Descent of Angles stratagem to get the Chaplain with angles wings in, denying the Reapers overwatch and also stopping the forwarded stratagem from destroying anything. I should also have moved everything else up in the first movement phase as well, rather than sitting back and waiting for the deep striking units to do there stuff.

The second big error was then throwing the vanguard vets forward unsupported, this was a desperate move really in an attempt to destroy the only unit with the capability to out range me, it didn't really work and while I learned from the first failed attempt by placing them out of line of sight before charging, i really should have known better than to just throw them in.

Other minor mistakes include not shooting in the fire shooting phase as I was so taken a back with the destruction of the death company squad that i forgot all about it. I also didn't really have any plans other than plan A, and I really should have. Always have a back up plan or at least don't put everything in to just one option.

I think the real lesson that I learnt from this game though is that the list doesn't really work. Yes you can make it work but it lacks a lot of options. It's a short range assault army and all it takes is to loose one unit and it all falls apart very quickly. I think that you could play this very differently and have some success, but as a standard list it doesn't work. If I was playing a 2000 point game, joing this up with a 1000 point guard list would be excellent, as the guard would provide the long range fire and the Angles the short ranged assault, plus you'd have CP's to spend. For my next game, I'm going with a very different list, back to a similar list To my first game and bringing back the tactical and devastator squads.

Major fluff changes!

Recently i have been going back over my chapters and regiments back stories. This is something i like to do every so often but with the release a 8th and the new guard, BA and DA codeces, it was even more necessary. Apart from the obvious changes to the BA and DA fluff from there respective codeces, i have also had a major reshuffle of my own fluff.

The various guard regiments have not received much in the way of an update, as to be honest, they don't really need one. There has been so bits added about the great rift and it's effect on the system, which is not much, as the segmentum pacificus doesn't really seem affected or even mentioned much in the books.

The Eagle Knights have had more of an update, due to the events surrounding the defense of Baal and the conning of Guilliman and his primaris marines. The 3rd, my company are not overly effected, but will be receiving reinforcements due to the chapters reorganisation. This means there will be more units to add in the future.

The biggest changes are happening around the other 4 marine chapters. I have back stories for the DA based Dark Guardians, the Imperial Fists based Emperor's Disciples, the Black Templars based Brazen Hawks and the Wolves based Stone Dragons. 5 marine forces is 3 to many really and the Hawks were dropped quite early, as i never really liked the force as i always felt i had created them for the sake of it, although i did quite like the fluff i had created. Next on the chopping board were the Disciples, as although i like the fluff and the force, the new Fists tactics didn't inspire me and i never warmed to the colour scheme, yes i could have changed the colour scheme and i had tweaked it in the past, but by this point i had fallen out of love with the Fists as a whole. This has left the Guardians and the Dragons, both of which, in terms of fluff and colour scheme, i like.

The Guardians are very different to the Knights. The Knights are about jump packs and assault, where as the guardians are about termies and bikes. To very different forces both visually and in play style. Granted the Knights have morphed a bit to include some more shooty units, such as sternguard from the Disciples, however the main principal will still be jump pack assault. The big question at the moment is the Dragons, as the Wolves codex is yet to be released. The plan is still several long range units, a contemptor dread and several elite units. When the Wolves codex does drop, which of you believe the rumours will be sometime this year, then i will firm up the list.

So, with dropping the Disciples and Hawks, i now have quite a bit of fluff that i no longer need, but that i do quite like. Solution? I'm going to delete the Disciples and Hawks pages from the blog but not before merging the Disciples and the Dragons and also the Hawks and Guardians fluff together, something I'm in the process of right now. This will mean that both of the forces will see quite a change in the back stories, but hopefully one that will add depth to what is already there. In terms of the Guardians, i hope it will tie in nicely with current events on the codex.

One thing is still bothering me though, while i don't really care about the Brazen Hawks name, it was just a random name i came up with, i have an attachment to the Emperor's Disciples name, as this was the first chapter name i came up with many years ago, when i first got back in to 40k. My guard at that time went by the name Segedunum Yeomanry, named after a local Roman fort at the time but i was not very attached to it, so it got changed to the Hjaltland LI. At that time i was intending on finishing the guard force and then creating a supporting marine force, which over many months and lots of thought, became to be called the Emperor's Disciples, taking the Imperial Fists chapter tactic, a gun line marine force supporting a gun line guard army. The Disciples have remained part of the plan ever since, being formed in to 500 point forces, the 1000 point, then full 2000 point lists, before dropping back down through 1000 and 500 point lists until they were dropped completely. But now i have dropped them, i want to keep the name going somehow, as it's something that has always been part of my 40k revival.

I had thought about merging the names as well as the fluff, but Emperor's Dragons or Stone Disciples don't ring as well as the originals. So how do i keep the name or do i not bother and just let it be one of those things that dies as the hobby progresses?

Eagle Knights Vs AdMech and IG

In a bit of a break from the Eagle Knights units, here is a battle report from the weekend.

So this was the first outing for my newest completed force, the Eagle Knights. It was a 1500 point battle between the Admech with Astra Militarum allies and a force of Eagle Knights.

The forces of the Admech and Guard consisted of something along the lines of:

2 Tech Priest Dominus, 2 Dunecrawlers, 4 squads of Rangers and a squad of Ruststalkers. In addition there was also a Company Commander, Command Squad, 3 Squads of Infantry, 3 Lord Commissars, a Scout Sentinel and a Lascannon Heavy Weapons Squad. These were arranged in to two Battalion detachments and a Supreme Command Detachment, giving my opponent 10 command points.

On the other side of the table were a Librarian, Chaplain, Captain, 2 Lieutenants, 3 5 man Tactical squads, an Assault squad, a 7 man and 5 man Death Company Squads, a Devastator squad and a Vanguard Squad, arranged in a Battalion and Supreme Command Detachment, giving me 7 command points. One of which I spent straight away giving my Chaplain the Death Visions of Sanguinius, turning him in to a Death Company Chaplin.

Eagle Knights Deployment, castling up in the centre of the board.

The Reserves, Death Company at the back, Assault Squad with Libby, the second Death Company with Chaplain, and the Vanguard and Lieutenant at the front. 

The view across the table at deployment.

The AdMech and Guard deployment, spreading out, heavies on the right flank and guard on the left. The Scout Sentinel would scout forward and to the left to extend the area of no deep striking.

The Ruststalkers, in reserve for the AdMech

Turn 1

Well, I had managed to deploy first and as we were playing the Eternal War mission; Secure and Control, I got to go first or rather I should have. Unfortunately for me, my opponent managed to steal the initiative. As a result, my poor infantry hiding in the ruins took quite a battering, and when I say infantry, what I mean is that my Devastators to a battering, eventually succumbing to the sheer weight of fire coming there way, giving up first blood, something that would become quite important later in the game. The rest of my forces got off quite lightly, having a 2+ save thanks to cover from the vast majority of the firing.

During my turn, I decided to launch a mass assault, dropping the death company on my left flank, in front of the heavy support Dunecrawlers, and the assault marines and Vanguard vets dropped in in front of the guard squad on the right flank. This is where I made the first and probably the biggest mistake of the game. I had cleared it with my opponent before the game to use the Blood Angles relics and not just be stuck to the Successor chapter one relic sword, thus I had given the Chaplin the Angles Wings, to deny my opponent overwatch. I was supposed to combine this with the Descent of Angles stratagem, for a 3d6 charge, but forgot, rolling up short, very short, so short that not even a re-roll would have helped. I then decided to charge the 7 man DC squad in, this time using the stratagem and rolling up a massive 13 inches. Unfortunately I took 3 losses to overwatch and the 5 man DC squad, armed with 2 hammers, also failed its charge, on a double 1. This meant that I had little chance of doing the damage I needed to do first turn, although the DC squad that did charge in did manage to put a few wounds on the Warlord.

The botched charges on the left

On the right flank, things went a little better, but not much. The Libby did some damage during the Psychic phase, wounding the Sentinel and giving the Vanguards an extra attack each. The Vanguard and the Lieutenants then made there charge in to the Guard, but the Assault marines failed there charge in to the Sentinel.

The Right flank, a little more successful.

The Vanguard destroyed one squad, before consolidating in to the second. Unfortunately, the Lieutenant was left behind.

Turn 2

For some reason I did not take any picture this turn, but it wasn't a great turn for the Knights. All the units charge in the first turn fell back from combat, with the guard making good use of orders to wittle the Vanguards down to 3 men and the AdMech sniped out the Lieutenant. The DC squad that was in combat was also punished, dropping the squad down to just 2 members. One of which was lost to moral at the end of the turn. I needed anything but a 6, and on my first roll I rolled a 6 but that's ok, I have ATSKNF, so I went and re-rolled, getting a 6. Oh, dam.

My turn was a little more successful. The rest of the Death company moved up and attacked the Dunecrawler, taking it down to just 2 wounds. The vanguard vets moved across the board and took on the heavy weapons squad and a rangers squad, while the Assault marines moved up to take on the rest of the guard squads and command units on the right. While the vets managed to take out the heavy weapons, with assistance form the last surviving DC marine, they were both able to consolidated on other squads as well. The Assault marines on the other hand, failed to destroy there targets. I think this was a combination of some very poor rolling from me, with my Libby unable to take down a Company Commander, and splitting up my attacks to much, I should have just concentrated on the guard and left the commissars and company commanders alone. As a result I lot a couple of marine to the attacks back from the Commissars and lost my Libby to the power fist of the Company Commander! I really don't understand why Librarians don't have an Invulnerable save as standard? So I had done some damage this turn, but not really enough to turn the tide of battle, I was still massively outnumbered and deep within the enemy lines. Also I should mention, that a squad of marines had moved up alongside the Captain and Lieutenant to engage the guard and rangers in the centre of the board, to try and put some pressure there as well.

Turn 3

This was where it really was the beginning of the end. Again, most of the units fell back from combat, opening up the vanguard vets and the assault marines to another punishing round of shooting. As a result, the last DC marine in the centre died, as did the Vanguard vets.  The big news for me though, was that the Ruststalkers finally dropped in on my left flank, right by the objective, although there shooting killed a couple of marines, and thus meant that a charge was out of the question this turn.

Top of turn 3 and the Knights are in trouble

Locked in combat, the only good thing to happen this turn.

In the following assault phase, there were a few charges, the most important one was the warlord coming back in to the combat with the DC marines on the left flank. This was done as my opponent reasoned, correctly, that I would charge next turn, if he didn't charge this turn. Unfortunately, he wiffed all his attacks and the hammer equipped DC then took out the Dunecrawler, which unfortunately went bang. This meant that while I lost 2 DC marines and the Chaplain took a wound, his warlord lost 2 wound, taking him down to just 1 wound, which was quickly finished by the Chaplain. The assault squad on the other flank, unfortunately took a beating while this was occurring, with the two Lord Commissars cutting down 3 of the 4 remaining marines, although one was cut down in reply. The marines at the front of the AdMech lines did little, taking out a guardsman for no reply.

In my turn the DC marine advanced and charged in to some rangers, although they were now down to just a couple of marines and a Chaplain. The assault marines shot the last commissar to death with pistols. Apart from that little happened, as I was really down to my last few units. In the assault phase, the Captain and Lieutenant charged in and killed a few guardsmen and the last Ranger, while the DC marines killed a few Rangers, but were reduced down to there last member, alongside the Chaplain.

Turn 4

Well, by now the writing was well and truly on the wall, the last assault marine fell in combat after surviving a bunch of shooting. The tactical marines in the centre were reduced to one member alongside the Captain and Lieutenant and the last DC marine fell. The only point of note was the 11 inch charge that the Ruststalkers managed, brining them up to the objective, before they wiped out all but one of the tactical marines.

The few remaining marines.

In my turn I didn't both doing much, as there was little that I could do. I could not take the enemy objective, as I had only 1 troop compared to about 7 enemy troops in that area. I was down to barely half a dozen models in total and massively outnumbered. However, I survived a white wash of 8 to 1 but falling out of combat with my last marine and moving back in to range of the objective, using objective secured to hold it. This meant that the final score was 5 to 5, with both of us holding an objective and line breaker, but my opponent having first blood and myself slay the Warlord.

The last stand.

We skipped through them 4 quite a bit as it was the last turn and realistically there was only one thing that was of any concern, the holding of my objective. If we had played this game out to 5 full turns i think in would have been facing a tabling. At the very least i would have ended up loosing 8 to 1. I learnt a lot this game about the force. My assault units worked very well, but i should not have split up the vanguard vets and the assault marines. Keeping them together would have meant being able to wipe out the guard on the right flank and then move towards the centre, on mass, rather than bit by bit. The same with the DC marines, although, using the correct stratagem at the correct time would also have helped! I'll refine the list and hopefully get another game in some time soon.