Last night at the Ordo Fanaticus club in Portland I had my second game out with my Alpha Legion, playing The Horus Heresy.
I played against a guy called Gregor, whose Word Bearers army I had played once before, with my White Scars, a few months back. Indeed, I recognized a few of the units he brought along this time.
He was running a list like this:
Warmonger Consul
Moritat Consul
2x Tactical squads
Tactical Support squad with plasma guns
Reconaissance squad with shotguns
Gal Vorbak big unit of 6
Ashen Circle unit of 10
Contemptor Dreadnought
2x Sicaran battle tanks
My list was this:
Delegatus Consul
2x Tactical squads
Veteran squad of 7
Veteran squad of 5
Cataphractii big unit of 10 in a
Land Raider Spartan
Headhunter Kill Team of 10
Contemptor Dreadnought
2x Sicaran battle tanks
Interesting coincidence that we both brought 2 Sicarans. At least one Contemptor seems like a given, with how good they are in this game. We were playing at 2500 points. I have a little over 3000 painted, but Gregor didn't have quite that much done and wanted to maintain a certain standard in that regard.
You can see much of his deployment below.
We were playing the mission Tide of Carnage on the Search and Destroy deployment map.
I won't do a play-by-play report here, but only some of the highlights.
I began deployment and took the first turn, and started my Headhunter unit infiltrated and scouted very close to his lines, aiming to take out his Support squad with the plasma guns. I managed to take out 7 of them in the first turn, and caused the remaining 3 to flee. Then, when it was his turn and he was going to try to take out the remaining Headhunters not killed by Return Fire, I used Smoke and Mirrors, the Alpha Legion advanced reaction, to redeploy them 12" away and out of sight!
My units of Veterans again proved their worth in this game by twice slaughtering opposing squads more than twice their size of Tactical marines. Their high Weapon Skill and power swords make them slice through regular infantry like butter.
Gregor reserved his Warmonger with Gal Vorbak to deep strike, as well has his Moritat with Ashen Circle. In both turns when one of these units arrived, I got off a double Interceptor reaction. There was minimal effect into the Gal Vorbak, just because they are so tough, but the Ashen Circle were substantially damaged. Augury Scanners giving free additional Interceptor uses might be a bit much!
I did learn from one mistake I made this game. It was neigher the pic above or below this line, though. They were both good plays.
When his Gal Vorbak appeared in my backfield, I knew I had to deal with them immediately.
I used Interceptor against them, as I mentioned. The template on them is from my Contemptor's Graviton gun.
Here's my mistake: deploying my WS4 Cataphractii Terminators to charge into the WS5 Gal Vorbak.
My Terminators did very little to them in combat, and ended up losing the combat, falling back, and being swept by the Gal Vorbak! I lost 7 unscathed Terminators with little in return aside from perhaps roadblocking the Gal Vorbak's way into my nearby Tactical squad.
When the Ashen Circle and Moritat arrived from reserves, they scattered and landed on dangerous terrain, which, combined with my two Interceptor reactions, immediately killed 8 of 10.
In the end, with my Cataprhractii fled, I cut down the Gal Vorbak with ranged fire from my Sicarans, Spartan, and Contemptor, then used the dreadnought to charge and smash the enemy Warlord, the Warmonger consul. Here is where we ended the game, after my fourth turn.
A few takeaways from this game:
1) Veterans are still very good value for points, particularly into WS4 infantry. Mine are extra good because they have Banestrike bolters (Alpha Legion) and I also pay for power swords on them, which does make them expensive. Worth it, though.
2) I should probably run them with either a character in each squad, or vexilla at the least, since they top out at Ld 8.
3) The above, but doubly so, for my Cataphractii. They are mostly Ld 7.
4) Never ever ever ever fight against a unit with higher WS
5) Coming in from reserves is very risky in a world of Augury Scanners giving units free Interceptor reactions to no limit.
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