This was originally an email to a friend of mine who I talk 40K with a lot. Some pictures referred to have been deleted to protect the innocent.
So I’ll approach this is a complete recap of the trip to the Warhammer store today, for the added context.
As you know I put a decent amount of thought into what army I wanted to bring, and then how to approach the battle. In short, it had to be the Scars because I very much consider them my main force, and I know them better than any other. I wanted that mental overhead to be accounted for in my first game out with a stranger in forever. I also wanted to bring a themed army, since the plan was to play Crusade. And additionally to that, I wanted to bring some stuff that maybe you don’t see every day. I play with a lot of firstborn stuff because, hell, I went to the trouble of painting it all, and I feel like it has a limited shelf life to it, as well. I want to get as much out of it as I can, while I can. And what better way to kill two birds with one stone than with a mounted up army with a lot of bikes, mechanized infantry, and even a drop pod?
I feel like that aspect of the outing (the part aside from the game itself) was a rousing success. I had several compliments on the army. People like the Khan on bike, they loved the drop pod, they loved how much of a lore-appropriate White Scars list it appeared to be. At the end of the night, Ian the store manager, who I’m friendly with, said it was great to see the Scars on the table again after so long. He accurately remembers that I had a bunch of Primaris painted up for it, as well, but said he definitely approves of the firstborn themed list I had for tonight.
So, I got to the store at probably close to 4:00, which I think is only a bit after he closes and reopens for his lunch each day (single staff store…). I’m about the 5th or 6th guy there to play today, but no one has really started yet, they’re all kind of standing around chatting. Ian has apparently just finished setting up three Incursion size boards with terrain. I walk in, and Ian says something like, ‘Ok now we’ve got enough everyone can play’ so I figure I was either the 4th or 6th player. Then it kinda goes quiet for a minute while everyone waits for everyone else to make the first move toward a board or to ask another person to play. It was funny, kind of like an old west standoff or something for a second there. I’ve just walked in and have my bag over my shoulder and I’m closest to a couple of the boards, so I just step up to one and sort of break the ice by asking if everyone had already pre-arranged opponents or what. No one had, and one guy says, “I’ve got Custodes,” and immediately I’m thinking “oh no, I just owned this army into oblivion with my own Custodes last week,” so I kind of wait to see what others have on offer. A guy addresses the Custodes guy and says “cool, I’ve got my Necrons, let’s go.” I’m relieved. Then the guy who I end up playing speaks up and says he has Black Templars if I don’t mind playing another marine list. Anything but the Custodes! So I say sure, and we grab the next board over from where I was initially standing, which has a load of Sector Mechanicus stuff on it (see one of the pics for reference).
I neglected to bring my core book, so I don’t have the Crusade missions on hand (I do have the Open War deck, just in case). My opponent has his core book though, so we roll a D6 in the Incursion section of the Crusade missions, and end up with whatever it’s called, number 6 where there’s no objective, it’s about breaking through to the other side and exfiltrating for VPs, or preventing them from doing the same. We then determine deployment zones, then sort of rearrange the terrain a little. We agree that we’ll treat the mechanicus pieces as both area terrain/ruins but also as granting dense cover when firing into/through them. So, they aren’t Obscuring, but they’re also not no-penalty true LOS, and when you go into them you get the light cover bonus. You might see in the other pic I texted that we end up with our infantry and bikes on top of the terrain—this is for convenience only, kind of like the opposite of Wobbly Model Syndrome. The models are “actually” fighting under all the gantries and stuff, but it’s easier just to put them on top. In other words, we didn’t measure any vertical distance for them to actually get up on top, and still applied the -1 to hit for models down on the ground shooting up at the top (dense cover), while also NOT applying anything like exposed position or whatever the rule is for when you’re on top of a shipping crate or something.
So we roll off for attacker/defender, and he chooses defender. I’m not really sure why, since we had already more or less determined deployment zones just by where we put our stuff off to the side of the board (doesn’t everyone always do this, inadvertently?). Anyway, as the defender, he first deploys a unit, which I think he first put down his 10-man Assault Intercessor squad. I put down a bike squad on my side, sort of in the middle. He puts down another unit, I think the 5-man Assault Intercessors. I put down another bike squad near the first, but more toward the other side of my zone. He puts down Outriders on the far edge, to which I put down my Land Speeder on the same edge, thinking I might try to go for them right off the bat (and they probably can’t hurt it that much with their shooting). He then puts down his Razorback carrying Bladeguard, the Bladeguard Ancient, and the Emperor’s Champion on the opposite flank. I mentioned this by text, but he was aware it wasn’t technically legal to put Primaris into it, and asked me if I had any problem with it. I felt like he was probably somewhat new to the game or at least the army (he mentioned he also has Orks), and everything was painted pretty well and obviously looked like he wasn’t cheesing just to cheese, so I said sure, go ahead. The material difference between a Razorback and Impulsor is minimal anyway. In fact, by playing a Razorback, he was giving up the assault vehicle rule. So yeah. I’m just there to have some fun rolling dice anyway. But to get back to deployment, I am pretty sure I deployed my Rhino with Tac Squad inside after that, over by the Land Speeder. I may have lost the order somewhere, because he also had Eradicators, and I may have put the Rhino where it was to somewhat hide it from them. Anyway, he plays some other thing and I deploy my Khan and I’m done, and then he I think deploys his Chaplain and is done. I remember he mentioned not being able to choose where to put the Chaplain, but he ends up putting him by the 5-man Assault Intercessors, on the same flank as the Outriders, as well.
We roll off for first turn, and he wins, and unsurprisingly he takes the first turn. This suits me because now my Devastators will have more to shoot at when they arrive on my first turn. By the way, they are going to have to come down in my own deployment zone because of the mission rules. Dumb mission! We should have played Open War instead. So he advances his Assault Intercessors up, both squads, along with the Chaplain. Outriders I think just do a normal move. Razorback also a normal move. He has a little shooting, and kills one of my bikers with it (Eradicators), and wounds another (Razorback twin heavy bolter, I think). No charges, and it’s my turn.
My first turn, I change my target priority and move my Speeder up to where it has an angle on the Eradicators. I move my Rhino up some and then Lightning Debark the Tac Squad inside with range on the small AssInt squad. I move all my bikes to have eyes on both AssInt squds and Eradicators, the multi-melta squad also in range of his Razorback. Pod comes down close to his Razorback and the Devastators hop out 9” away from it (side note, did you know the pod itself can be within 9” of the enemy? Only the unit getting out of it has to be 9” away). Shooting, I kill one of his Eradicators with the Land Speeder’s combo heavy flamer and multi-melta shooting. I also remove 3/5 of one AssInt Squad and I think 2.5/10 of the other with biker shooting. Devastators blow up his Razorback with their multi-meltas, and target the big AssInt squad with grav and bolter (Sgt), but I don’t think they kill any infantry. Even the pod shoots its Storm Bolter. I’ll note that he was rolling really well with saves the whole game. Seemed like those Templar dice only ever showed 5s and 6s! Bladeguard, the Ancient, and Emps Champion popped out of the Razorback. One Bladeguard died in that event (nice). I also took a couple of wounds off another Bladeguard with my last bike squad I had saved to shoot after hopefully popping the transport.
Now I was done shooting, and I hadn’t wanted to be in close combat in the first, or maybe even second round, but clearly I was going to have to strike first, because after both our movement phases, there was only like 6-8 inches separating our lines. And Templars re-roll charges, too! So, I made the first move and charged all my bikes into his bigger AssInt squad. The Khan fought first, and killed another couple of guys, so that squad was now down to 6. He plays Counter Offensive, and puts that same unit of his all into one of my bike squads, killing one biker from it. I then go back to fighting with both of my bike squads, but do almost nothing. Maybe one more AssInt dies, putting that squad down to 5. My bad rolling and his hot rolling, I guess. Morale phase is a non-event, and it’s back over to him.
He moves his Outriders over toward my Tac Squad/Rhino/Speeder clump. Then his small AssInt squad to within striking distance, his Chaplain with them. Eradicators stay put. Most of the trouble from the Razorback moves over very close to my Devastators, but the Emperor’s champion beelines for my Khan and biker clump. He splits fire with his two Eradicators and blows up my Speeder and also kills my Khan (failed the 4+ invuln even after a reroll to take 7 wounds from a melta rifle, fuck). Come to think of it, the Khan should have been in combat still with the AssInts, but I think our reverse wobbly model thing tricked me into thinking he was indeed out in the open when he actually should have been consolidated into combat still. Oh well! In the moment I just thought, ‘there I go again getting the Khan too far out on his own.’ Next, thinking outside the box, he uses a krak grenade from the small AssInt Squad instead of one of their heavy bolt pistols, as well as a frag grenade from his Chaplain (who I guess has no pistol? That can’t be right. And yes, frag not krak lol) both into my Tac Squad. IIRC he did kill a couple guys this way. His Outriders shoot at my Rhino and actually take off 7 wounds from it. Doesn’t seem right, does it? I still need to go read up on Templar rules because I think he may have been taking too much AP on some or all attacks. To be clear I don’t think it was purposeful if that’s the case, I think it’s possible he just didn’t quite get the rules right. For instance, he thought I was mistaken when I didn’t apply shock assault to a unit of mine that was already in combat from before and so hadn’t charged/been charged/intervened. Anyway, I think he fired his remaining Bladeguard guys’ pistols at my Devastators, but I don’t think any wounds went through.
However, he then went into Charge phase and got his Bladeguard and their Ancient into my Devastators, and his Emperor’s Champion into one of my Bike Squads, plus his other AssInts (2 models now) and the Chaplain into my Tac Squad, and even his Outriders into my Rhino. First he fights the Emperor’s Champion if I recall, and does 5 attacks that get through for 3 damage each, finishing off that bike squad in one go. I interrupt just to try to do as much damage as possible with my Tac Squad. However, the positioning is such that I can only put 5 guys into his Chaplain, and the other 3 have to go into his 2 AssInts. They kill one, and maybe do a wound or two on the Chaplain. He continues fighting, killing three of my Tac Squad, and 4/5 of my Devastators with his lousy 2 Bladeguard. I keep a Grav-cannon guy. His Outriders Chainsword my Rhino to death, then consolidate in the direction of my surviving Devastator. Now I get to fight my remaining bike squad against his 5 remaining AssInts from the big squad. I don’t recall if any died. At any rate, they didn’t all die, because the combat continued into my second turn as well. Then that unit of his fights back, and I think I lose another bike. My Devastator survivor fights and does some damage to almost kill a second Bladeguard, but he rerolls his save into a success. Damn. Morale again is a non-issue.
In my turn I go to fall back with my bikes from his remaining AssInts, but he uses a strat to prevent it on a 4+, and rolls his 4. I do fall back with my Devastator, and then use Feinting Withdrawal on him so he can go ahead and shoot again. I also fall back with my Tac Squad from his single remaining AssInt and Chaplain, just to set up for a charge back into them. Grav-cannon Devastator shoots his shot and I think does kill off a second Bladeguard finally. Tac Squad charge back into the Chaplain and maybe do a wound or two, but don’t kill him. His big AssInt unit fights my stuck in combat bikers, and they fight back. Again both units survive. His Chaplain kills 3 of my 5 remaining Tac Squad at this point. End of my turn, again Morale doesn’t matter to either side.
By his third turn I don’t have much left. He finishes off my lone Devastator, my couple of Tac Marines, and my last biker or two with his Emperor’s Champion, Chaplain, and outriders and stuff, leaving me with nothing put the pod on the board, and so we shake on it, ‘good game.’ He at least pulled off the action for VP one time in the third round, so he won on the mission as well, after it just became a battle for two rounds.
I was able to do some decent damage at range before having to commit to combat with, I’ll just say it, better units. I couldn’t have known it would be the case, but maybe if I’d had something else instead of a due-to-the-mission mostly useless Drop Pod, it could have helped some? I could have had maybe an Apothecary for that 4 PL instead to resurrect bikes! And if I’d noticed that my Khan should have lived longer… but in the end it was a fun couple of hours all the same, and well worth getting out to do it.
One thing I’ll note is that the store is not big… like only a little bigger than the room I play in at home… and we had four games going at once, plus Ian talking with a handful of customers that came in, so it was getting loud and somewhat hard to hear and concentrate at times, so at one point I remember thinking ‘ugh I don’t want to be here right now,’ but it was only a moment before either one game finished or something or other happened and the noise level came down some.
The guy I was playing was younger, probably high school or college age, and he was mostly pretty solid, and I’d definitely like to play his Orks some time, I told him. We can re-enact the Scars’ Chondax campaign against them, maybe. There’s also another guy who I’ve seen up there before who plays Thousand Sons (and was playing vs Necrons right beside us when our game wrapped up). That guy is putting together a Crusade campaign based off the recent Octarius books where it’ll be Orks vs Tyranids vs everyone else, starting out at 25 PL and working up to 50 or 100 maybe. I might try to be a part of that.
It seems like the store has a more vibrant scene now than when I was playing there before, so for the time being it might be a good fit to go back to playing there every couple of weeks. I was talking to Ian and we both agreed that the Incursion size game was way better for the store both for the smaller board size and the lesser time length needed to finish a game. He also mentioned that he liked using 1000 points for the matched play nights so that people could use the same force or list for both purposes if they liked. He said he would still love to host Strike Force games or even bigger, but for those it’s probably better to get with your opponent and choose an off night during the week for those when there’d be fewer people in to play.
So, all in all, it was a good time and a nice step back into the scene after a long time. Maybe next time I’ll do an all Terminators list or something.
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