So I had a 1850pts game against a guy called Luke at my local club the Norman Cross Crusaders. I was running an 1850pt list of combined Skitarii and Cult Mechanicus against Luke’s 1850pt Raven Guard list that he is taking to a local tournament being run this weekend by the club. Below is a break down of my list as well as a rough break down of Luke’s list ( I will try to remember everything but don’t know all the specifics).
Skitarri Maniple:
1 x 10 Rangers w/ Omnispex + 2 Arc Rifles
1 x 10 Vanguard w/Omnispex + 2 Plasma Cailvers
1 x 5 Sicarian Infiltrators w/Flechette Blasters + Taser goads and Omniscient Mask on Alpha
1 x 5 Sicarian Ruststalkers w/ Transonic Razors, Chordclaws and Mindscrambler Grenades
3 x Syndonian Dragoons w/ Taser Lances
2 x Onager Dunecrawlers w/Neutron Lasers + extra Cognis Heavy Stubbers
Cult Mechanicus Battle C0ngregation:
1 Tech Priest Dominus w/ Eradication Ray, Macrostubber & Conversion Field
3 x Kataphron Breachers w/ Heavy Arc Rifles + Arc Claws
3 x Kataphron Destroyers w/ Grav Cannons + Cognis Flamers
1 x Kastellan Robot Maniple w/ 2 Robots Heavy Phosphor Blaster & Twin-Linked Heavy Phosphor Blasters + 1 Datasmith w/ Conversion Field
1850pts
Raven Guard Combined Arms Detachments:
1 x Chapter Master w/ grav pistol, lightning claw, Armour of Shadows
1 x 5 Tactical Squad w/ Lascannon
1 x 5 Tactical Squad w/ Lascannon
2 x Dreadnought w/ Twin Linked Lascannon + Powerfist w/ storm bolter
2 x Contemptor Dreadnought w/ Kheres Assault Cannon + Powerfist w/combi bolter
Raven Guard Shadowstrike Kill Team:
1 x 5 Scout Squad (not sure on equipment)
1 x 5 Scout Squad (again not sure on equipment)
1 x 10 Vanguard Veterans w/ jump packs, bolt pistol + CC weapon and Melta Bombs
1 x 10 Vanguard Veterans w/ jump packs, bolt pistol + CC weapon and Melta Bombs
1 x 10 Vanguard Veterans w/ jump packs, bolt pistol + CC weapon and Melta Bombs
1850pts
Mission: Contact Lost
I won the roll off to deploy first and chose to do so.
Luke deployed his scouts in the bastion in the middle of the table as inflitrators, my Sicarian Infiltrators deployed on his right flank. I apologise for the lack of deployment photos for Luke’s army! He had two Contemptors on the left flank in a building, 2 Dreadnoughts in the middle building and the 2 Tactical Squads with them. Finally I made scout moves for my squads that could (thanks to the Skitarii Maniple) and Luke rolled to seize the initiative but failed to do so.
Turn 1
I drew 1 objective and which was Hungry for Glory – not good for turn 1 and got swiftly discarded at the end of the turn. My squads moved up the field whilst my Onagers targeted the Bastion in the centre containing the scout squads. I got quite lucky here as they demolished the building in one round of shooting and a few Scouts died in the ensuing explosion. I finished off one of the Scout Squads with fire from my Vanguard Squad to earn First Blood.
My Rangers proceeded to take 2 hp off one Contemptor on the left flank and stunned it.
In Luke’s turn his units stayed relatively where they were apart from 1 Contemptor which moved forward and ran towards my Rangers. He shot his lascannons from Tactical Squads and Dreadnoughts into my Onagers, immobilizing one and taking it down to 1 hp.
Turn 2
I drew 3 objectives cards as I was holding 3 objectives. I drew Recon (automatic point as all the objectives had been discovered), Ascendancy and No Prisoners.
I moved my Dragoons to the centre to prepare to charge towards his Dreadnoughts sitting in his deployment zone, as well as continuing to move the rest of my squads forwards apart from my Vanguard Squad that were sitting on objective on the right, and the Dominus, Destroyers and Ruststalkers that stayed back in my deployment zone protecting the objective in the middle.
With shooting I managed to take down the Contemptor in the open with fire from my Rangers and Breachers on the left flank, destroyed 1 Dreadnought in the middle with fire from my Onagers as well as killing 1 squad of Tactical Marines and reducing the other squad to 1 marine in the centre with combined fire from other squads. With no other shooting left I ended up assaulting the one Scout left in the centre with my Dragoons and (just barely with poor rolling) killed him.
By the end of my turn 2 I had achieved Recon for 1pt, Ascendancy for 2 pts and No Prisoners for 3 pts for a total of 7 points including First Blood.
Now the real battle began…
Luke deep striked (deep struck?) his 3 Vanguard Veteran Squads into my deployment zone, 1 squad scattered in front of my Breachers, 1 squad with Chapter Master landed behind my Ruststalkers and Dominus, and 1 squad scattered in front of my Onagers. He also moved one Dreadnought out to tackle my Dragoons whilst his Contemptor and final Tactical Marine with lascannon stayed put.
His Contemptor on the left shot and killed 5 Rangers and the rest fled. His left Vanguard Veteran Squad shot the Breachers killing one before assaulting and killing the rest of the squad. His Dreadnought shot and assaulted my Dragoons, killing 1 before being wrecked in return. His right Vanguard Veteran Squad assaulted my Onagers, killing 1 with a melta bomb but stuck in combat with the other. Finally his Vanguard Veteran Squad in the centre shot and assaulted my Ruststalkers, wiping out the whole squad.
At the end of turn 2 it was looking much more challenging with several of my sqauds having been neutered or wiped out completely!
Turn 3
I really needed to deal with these Veterans that were rampaging through my lines. Deep strike assaulting is nasty!
To that end I moved my Kastellans to target the squad on the left with their heavy phosphor blasters and my Dragoons retreated to get in a position to assault the squad attacking my Onagers. My Rangers rallied and turned to face the squad in front of them and my Infiltrators, having spent a large part of the game doing nothing, moved to assault the lascannon marine and take the objective in Luke’s deployment zone.
My Destroyers and Dominus targeted his Veterans behind them, killing 5 and making the rest flee. My Kastellans shot and killed 4 from the squad on the left. My Rangers snap shot at the same squad and did no damage.
In assault my Inflitrators killed the lone lascannon marine, my Dragoons killed 2 marines from the right Veteran squad but they stuck around and did no damage in return.
I achieved Supremacy for 2 pts, and Psychological Warfare for 1 pt, bringing me up to a total of 10pts.
In Luke’s turn, his HQ squad rallied and moved to assault my Dominus and Destroyers, seeing them as a grav(e) threat. The squad on the left moved to assault my Rangers and his Contemptor moved to shoot my Infiltrators.
The Contemptor insta-killed 4 Infiltrators with it’s kheres assault cannon but the final Infiltrator stayed put. In assault Luke lost 4 Veterans from the centre squad to overwatch from the Destroyers & Dominus before completing the charge. His Chapter Master issued a challenge which my Dominus duly accepted. Unfortunately for Luke his Chapter Master inflicted no wounds thanks to his 2+ save and took one wound in return whilst the remaining Veterans inflicted 1 wound on my Destroyers for no damage in return, tieing up combat for another round at least. His Veterans on the left shot and assaulted the Rangers, who were easily wiped out before the remaining veterans consolidated towards the Dominus & Destroyers. The veterans on the right flank did no damage and took none in return tieing up this combat up as well.
I was feeling very fortunate that my Dominus and Destroyers had held up in combat, though in retrospect with his Chapter Master only having a AP3 Lightning Claw, challenging my Dominus was possibly a mistake as he could have easily wiped out all the Destoyers and forced my Dominus to flee.
Turn 4
I ran the final Infiltrator to attempt to capture objective 3 in the centre. I moved my Kastellans to join the assault with the Dragoons and Onagers on the right flank. I had no shooting this turn as nearly all my squads were tied up in combat or preparing to join one. In assault the Dragoons, Kastellans and Onagers combined to kill all but 3 of the Veteran squad and the rest fled. The Dominus combat was a stalemate with neither side inflicting any damage.
In Luke’s turn he rallied his Veterans on the right, and assaulted my Dominus and Destroyers with all his remaining Veteran squads. He killed all the Destroyers and inflicted 1 wound on my Dominus for none in return, fortunately my Dominus passed his leadership test and stuck around.
Turn 5
I moved my Dragoons and Kastellans to join in the brawl in the centre while my Onager began to trade ineffectual shots with his final Contemptor that was slowly moving across the board. My Dominus healed his wounds back to full in the shooting phase. In assault my Dragoons, Kastellans and Dominus combined to kill all his remaining Veterans and put 1 more wound on his Chapter Master, forcing him to flee.
At this point Luke called the game as all he had left were a Chapter Master on 2 wounds and a Contemptor on 1 HP and was well behind in points.
Result: Victory for the Ad-Mech Alliance!
Conclusions
Overall I felt it was a closer game than it looked like it was going to be by the end of my turn 2. However the ability to assault from deep strike meant his Veterans could neuter several of my squads in one turn. By the end of the game I had managed to counter all those threats but it was a close run thing and if a few rolls had gone more favourably for Luke it could well have ended very differently.
I feel that the force I had chosen was quite balanced. My MVP for the game was probably my Dominus & Destroyer squad more for the fact that they held up several Veteran squads and his Chapter Master in combat which allowed me to move other units to deal with them.
The only thing I might change from this list for a future game would be including some anti-air support. I went into this game knowing there would be no flyers so I would probably change at least one Onager to an Icarus Array if I was going against flyers or going to a tournament where I would need to have a more rounded army.
Let me know what you think in the comments section below! Hopefully this will be the first of many battle reports on Miniature Minded!
Miniature Minded 