1850p: Iron Hands vs Black Legion

Time for some battling again! Long time now...

So I basically just got a hold of some of the new Raptor models since I love them. And since I now have 10 of them I wanted to make a list using all of them. I threw in my bikes as well adding to the speed of the list.

On top of this I smacked on two Las-Preds because I loves them. And last time I played against IG I was annoyed about AV14. So hopefully this helps... even though I don't really know if I'm playing IG or Iron Hands at this point. Doesn't matter, Preds are always useful.

Defiler. Hasn't seen use in ages. But it should come in handy, so I threw it in there as well. So, with a lot of mech I decided to go for a Warpsmith as my general. Added some Cultists, a horde of CSM and also some CSM in a Rhino... and that was 1500p. However, we decided to go for 1850p instead so I switched it up a bit.

First, due to the extra points I decided to go Veterans on everything, as apparently you have to do that with the Black Legion supplement. I don't have it yet (since it's only available on Apple devices...) but decided that I wanted to see if it makes any impact on my list. Especially since I have Raptors, who for some reason pay 2p per model for this rule... anyway.

So with the extra points to spend... but all ready 3 Fast Attack and 3 Heavy Support slots taken, what to do? I added another HQ. I was debating about taking a Sorcerer or a Lord... Sorcerer is always useful, but I've used it a bit recently, so I decided to go for a Lord. He would run with the Horde and make them Fearless. That's pretty much his only job. With a bit of luck he gets to kill something as well.

Then I decided to add some Chosen with meltas who got the Rhino from the other CSM squad. Warpsmith will go here as well. And there we go!

Kind of odd army I think, and I'm really lacking in the anti-air department... which might be a huge mistake since my opponent just recently bought another Storm Talon meaning he might very well bring two... but alas, I'll have to deal with that as it comes. At least I have the twin-linked Lascannons on the Predators.

For anti-tank I feel very safe however, with pretty fast elements with meltas, as well as long range support. If there's a lot of tanks I'll probably deep strike the melta-Raptors as well. For crowd control I got the Defiler and Raptors with Flamers. And Chosen in assault I guess. As well as a large unit of CSM for some board control.

We'll see how this goes...

Lists

Black Legion
HQ
Chaos Lord - Meltabombs, Gift of Mutation, Veterans of Long War, Power Weapon (Axe), Sigil of Corruption
Warpsmith - Veterans of the Long War, Aura of Dark Glory

Troops
10 Cultists
10 Cultists
15 Chaos Space Marines - 2 Meltaguns, 14 Close Combat Weapons, Meltabombs, Veterans of the Long War
5 Chaos Space Marines - Plasma Gun, Veterans of the Long War

Elites
5 Chosen - 4 Meltaguns, Veterans of the Long War, Meltabombs
+Rhino

Fast Attack
5 Bikers - Mark of Nurgle, Veterans of the Long War, 2 Meltaguns, Power Fist
5 Raptors - 2 Flamers, Veterans of the Long War, Power Fist
5 Raptors - 2 Meltaguns, Veterans of the Long War, Power Weapon (Sword)

Heavy Support
Defiler
Predator - Twin-linked Lascannon, Lascannon sponsons
Predator - Twin-linked Lascannon, Lascannon sponsons


HQ
Librarian - Terminator armour, Storm Shield

Troops
10 Tactical Marines - Plasma Cannon, Plasma Gun, Plasma Pistol
+Drop Pod
10 Tactical Marines - Plasma Cannon, Plasma Gun, Plasma Pistol
+Drop Pod
10 Tactical Marines - Meltagun, Combi-Melta, Missile Launcher
+Drop Pod
5 Scouts - Camocloaks, Sniper Rifles

Elites
Dreadnought - 2 Twin-linked Autocannons
Techmarine

Fast Attack
10 Assault Marines - Jump Packs, Power Sword, Plasma Pistol
Storm Talon - Assault Cannon, Skyhammer Missiles
Storm Talon - Assault Cannon, Skyhammer Missiles

Heavy Support
Predator - Twin-linked Lascannon, Heavy Bolter sponsons

Pre

So we rolled for mission got Emperor's Will with Vanguard Strike Deployment. I got to chose sides first, then he won the roll off to go first. No Night Fighting first turn. For the Gift of Mutation on my Lord I got +1 Armour Save, and I also got re-rolls for Boons as Warlordtrait. He got Move Through Cover and Stealth in Ruins for trait and rolled Iron Arm and Life Leach for powers.
He left most of his army in reserve as you probably guessed by the list. I left one squad of Cultists, 5 CSM and melta-Raptors in reserve. The 10 Cultists I brought to the table just to protect the backs of the Predators from Drop Pod-melta. Did the same with the large squad of CSM for the Defiler. His Techmeraine boosted the rocks in his deployment zone and my Warpsmith reduced cover from the large hill.
I didn't steal initiative. 


Turn 1 - Iron Hands

So two Drop Pods come down, the Melta-pod scattered closer to the Defiler than intended and the Plasma-pod scattered quite a bit backwards.
Scouts moved up into a piece of ruins on their side to grab some cover. The rest basically stayed put.
Both the Melta and the Combi-melta failed to do anything to the Defiler (got a stunned which I ignored because of Daemonic Possession). It lives! The Plasma squad killed one biker, and something killed a Marine as well. Not a very good first turn!

Turn 1 - Chaos Space Marines

So I move up with Bikers on their side, follow with Cultists. The Predators move around as well to pick their targets. Defiler manages to get 2" forward, despite Move Through Cover and Fleet... My Flamer Raptors jump up to flame the melta-squad that just came out of the Drop Pod, killed one.
One Predator stunned the Dread, the other failed to kill a Drop Pod... The Defiler shot at the Devastators, got a good hit and killed 3 of them! Definitely helped to have that reduced cover there. They stayed put though.
Assault phase and I decided to charge the Plasma Marines with the Bikes and Cultists (Cultists first to draw Overwatch). Cultists failed but the Bikers came in. Biker Champion won his Challenge, and was turned into a Spawn for the trouble. The Raptors charged in, won the challenge (and got Hatred, yay since I all ready had it...) and killed all but one Marine. Still no First Blood.

Turn 2 - Iron Hands

Both Storm Talons came in, but the Assault Marines and the last Drop Pod stayed out.
Both Storm Talons shoot Assault Cannons and two missiles at the Defiler, but again all they manage is a stunned that I once again ignore. Something shot at one of my Predators and caused Snap shots for next round. Various shooting killed a couple of Marines as well. Still really bad rolls...
In assault phase my Raptors finished off the last Marine and got First Blood. The Bikers (who lost their Power Fist to Spawnhood...) fluffed and they stared against each other pretty much.

Turn 2 - Chaos Space Marines

All my reserves come in. The Cultists went for my Objective, the Five Marines for his annoying Scouts. Fired the plasma, got hot, died. Bah.
The Melta-Raptors landed next to the Predator without any scatter, but still failed to blow the tank up...
Everything else moved up except the Chosen Rhino who had nowhere to go, so they went for the closest Drop Pod and blew it up. One of the Predators blew the Dread up. The other one that was forced to shoot Snap Shots shot at one of the fliers and actually managed a hit, it was just locked velocity though.
In assault phase Cultists and Spawn charged in against the Plasma Marines. Pretty much nothing happened. A couple of Cultists died. Was probably a bad move charging them in, since they were actually killable... but the positioning of the units made it so he couldn't attack the Cultists with too many Marines anyway.

Turn 3 - Iron Hands

Assault Marines failed to show up, but the other Drop Pod arrived. It scattered pretty far off and ended up right in front of my CSM.
He killed off a couple of CSM, one Melta on the Raptors and not much more really. The combat in the woods was a stalemate still.

Turn 3 - Chaos Space Marines

My Flamer-Raptors jumped over the hill, the Sergeant died to dangerous terrain (...), my Lord with the CSM moved up towards the squad that came out from the Drop Pod and that was pretty much it for movement.
Predators had nothing else to shoot at, so they shot at the fliers, caused a HP on one, but was evaded anyway. The Melta-Raptors managed to blow up the Predator, but the explosion killed the remaining Melta... Flamer-Raptors flamed the Tacticals and killed one.
CSM charged the Scouts and Lord with CSM charged the Tacticals. Raptors charged the Tacticals. CSM Champion killed the Scout Sergeant (don't remember the reward, something not too useful), the never-ending story in the forest continued to be a stalemate.
I decided to challenge with my Lord in the fight in the middle, because I wanted to stay in combat for next round. So easily killed his Sergeant (which granted me Instant Death melee-attacks). However, my CSM were hungry and killed half the squad who failed their morale and ran away(!). Raptors did amazing as well, and caused 7 wounds... of which he failed three saves... and they ran off as well! Taking the Warlord with them...

Turn 4 - Iron Hands

Assault Marines finally came in. They scattered 12 inches... and ended up right in front of my Lord with his retinue. One Storm Talon turned around to shoot at Raptors (killed a couple), the other aimed to get off the board to be able to come back and shoot at Cultists next turn. Tacticals moved up to try and get to the Objective and the Techmarine positioned himself to charge the lone remaining Flamer-Raptor.
A bit out of order that, but his shooting basically killed all but one Raptor in each squad.
In the forest he managed to kill one Biker! And they actually ran away! But since the Spawn was there being Fearless they couldn't be run down at least. The Techmarine charge the Raptor and they stared at each other for a round. My CSM finished off his Scouts.





Turn 4 - Chaos Space Marines

Bikers rallied, failed to kill the Drop Pod. Chosen failed to kill Drop Pod. Predators failed to do anything.
Defiler however had a nice clumped up squad of Assault Marines in front of him since they shot last turn. Pieplate placement was obvious, all though a bit risky due to my Lord being so close. But of course I did it. And I hit, killed 6 Marines outright. There we go.
Lord charged in, killed the Sergeant and got D3+1 rolls on the table... of which I rolled 3. So he got +1BS, +1T and Poisoned CC attacks. Quite a beast by now... the rest of the CSM wiped the remaining Assault Marines. The Tech Marine killed the Raptor, and the other Raptor died to Overwatch when he charged the Tacticals.

Turn 5 - Iron Hands

One Storm Talon flew off the table, the other went down into Hover mode and finally killed the Defiler. Tacticals bunched up on the Objective, and the fight in the forest continued...




Turn 5 - Chaos Space Marines

Bikers failed to kill Drop Pod, Chosen killed their Drop Pod. Predator blew up the Storm Talon. And finally the Lord and his CSM charged the Tacticals who had joined up with the Techmarine. And in the final challenge he won once again, and as a reward he got Eternal Warrior (pretty fitting me thinks). And the rest of the squad went down as well, in another round of ridiculous failed saves (he failed like 5 out of 7 wounds or something, just enough to almost wipe out the squad...).
We rolled to see if the game ended and it did. So one Objective for me, and all three secondaries. 6-0 CSM victory!




Lessons Learnt

Okay, the beginning of this game was a bit silly. Neither of us could make any rolls... we were clearly out of practice for dice rolling! At least my rolls started to get more average after half the game, but his rolls continued to be abysmal... 3+ armour just didn't work.
The fact that my Defiler lived to turn 5 is amazing. I think it's a first for me. It usually dies in turn 2 the latest. Usually in turn 1 and gives up First Blood... but this game I actually got to use it, and it did really well I think. Especially in combination with the Warpsmiths Shatter Defences ability. Really neat!
The Warpsmith and the Chosen... they ended up in the backfield and kind of got stuck back there. It wasn't for nothing though, as had they not been there he would probably have Deep struck his Assault Marines on my side of the table instead to clear out those Cultists. So the Chosen kind of ended up as guards in a odd way. Too bad I don't have the Black Legion supplement yet, else they'd be Scoring as well. Certainly useful.
And then the man of the match... my Lord for sure. He just killed everything he touched. Quite a beast after all those Boons. 2+ armour, Poisoned Instant Death melee attacks, BS6, T5 and Eternal Warrior. Yikes. Imagine of that was his standard profile!
But... while that's fun when it works out, the Bikers showed it sucks when it doesn't... I charged the Marines in the forest counting on my Power Fist to do the trick in round two of the combat... but no, instead I got a Spawn... Champion of Chaos is such a annoying rule sometimes... That's not new though, I took a risk when I bought that Power Fist.
My Predators were pretty useless this game. I think between them they killed a dread. But I guess as far as match ups go they didn't really have so many good targets here. At least they're still cheap and they did draw some fire so it's okay. I still love them.
Pretty weird game, and too bad for the Iron Hands. Probably the last game with the old codex! But I guess that means they'll be back with a vengeance soon!

1850p: Imperial Guard vs Chaos Space Marines/Daemons

Back from vacation, and time for war! Friend of mine wanted to play some IG, and I decided to make a list to match his numbers basically... Cultists, Cultists and some more Cultists! I expect to be shot off the board by turn 2, but it'll be fun to see what happens at least.

So to lead my three squads of 20 Cultists each I have a Sorcerer in Terminator armour. He'll probably ride in a Rhino with five CSM and a melta gun. I have two of those squads. I think I'll roll two times on Telepathy and once on Pyromancy here. Hoping for Puppet Master and Invisibility, and then a destructive Pyromancy power just in case.

I also wanted to try the CSM Daemon Prince... as I actually don't think I've played with that version. So Wings, armour, Tzeentch, Level 3 and the Black Mace. He's rolling twice on Biomancy of course (and the obligatory one on Tzeentch). Fingers crossed for Iron Arm so that he actually survives...

Now, on to trying to outshoot the IG. 5 Havocs with Autocannons and 5 Havocs with a Lascannon and three missile launchers. And 3 Obliterators to round up. Some decent firepower. We'll see if it'll be enough...

Then for some fun I added Daemon allies. A Tzerald on level 3 to provide Prescience for either the Havocs or the squad of Horrors that joins him. The Horrors gets the Blasted Standard just because I want to try it, and also an instrument as well. The instrument is for dragging in the Screamers when they arrive from reserve, somewhere on the mid-field. I also gave the Herald the Portalglyph, so this army certainly doesn't lack scoring.

I know he has a Vendetta, and the only thing I have to deal with it is the Daemon Prince I guess. So that'll be dicey. I also feel like I'm a bit short on the anti-armour department... so... might be a tricky game this. But I'm hoping to get a mission with many objectives and have enough scoring units so that he can't finish them all off in time. We'll see how it goes.

I do like the story aspect of this army though, because in my mind it looks like a Sorcerer with his bodyguard of Marines has landed on a planet, started a cult, made a deal with a Daemon Prince of Tzeentch and recruited some Obliterators and now the Planetary Defence Force is trying to stop them...


Lists

Black Legion Chaos Space Marines
HQ
Sorcerer of Chaos - Level 3, Terminator Armour, Spell Familiar
Daemon Prince - Tzeentch, Power Armour, Wings, Level 3, Spell Familiar, The Black Mace

Troops
20 Cultists
20 Cultists
20 Cultists
5 Chaos Space Marines - Meltagun
+Rhino
5 Chaos Space Marines - Meltagun
+Rhino

Heavy Support
5 Havocs - 4 Autocannons
5 Havocs - 1 Lascannon, 3 Missile-launchers
3 Obliterators - Mark of Nurgle

Daemon allies
HQ
Herald of Tzeentch - Exalted Reward (Portalglyph), Exalted Locus, Level 3

Troops
10 Horrors - Iridescent Horror, Blasted Standard, Instrument

Fast Attack
3 Screamers


Imperial Guard
HQ
Straken
Company Command Squad - Regimental Standard, 2 Plasma Guns, Vox Caster
+ Chimera

Troops
Platoon Command Squad - Platoon Standard, Vox Caster, 2 Plasma Guns
Infantry Squad - 2 Flamers, Vox Caster
Infantry Squad - 2 Flamers, Vox Caster
Heavy Weapons Squad - 3 Autocannons
Special Weapons Squad - 3 Flamers
Special Weapons Squad - 3 Flamers

Platoon Command Squad - Platoon Standard, Vox Caster, 2 Melta Guns
Infantry Squad - 2 Flamers, Vox Caster
Infantry Squad - 2 Flamers, Vox Caster

Veteran Squad - 3 Plasma Guns
Veteran Squad - 2 Flamers, 1 Melta Gun

Fast Attack
Scout Sentinel Squad (2) - Multilaser

Heavy Support
2 Leman Russ - Heavy Bolter Sponsons
2 Basilisks - Heavy Bolter
1 Vanquisher - Heavy Bolter Sponsons


Pre

We rolled for mission and got Purge the Alien and Dawn of War Deployment. So... no Portalglyph for me after all. :P Instead I got the one blast weapon. For Warlord traits I got Fear, he got Intimidating Presence. For powers, my Sorcerer got Fiery Form (4+ invul, +2S), Mental Fortitude (Fearless) and Hallucination. Daemon Prince got Endurance (Feel no Pain, It Will Not Die), Life Leech and Doombolt. Tzerald got Prescience, Foreboding (Yay, full Overwatch on a unit that can't shoot Overwatch! And I rolled it twice...) and Flickering Fire. Horrors got Flickering Fire as well.

I won to chose sides, took the one with most buildings to put Havocs in, he won to go first but let me go first. There was no Night Fighting for turn 1, and he didn't steal initiative.

Turn 1 - Black Legion

So I basically moved everything up except for Havocs who stayed in their buildings. He had placed his command Chimera where my Autocannon Havocs could see it through the windows... perfect target for them and I took two HP off it. I flew up with the Daemon Prince, planning to use Doombolt on the two Russes... but seeing the vulnerable Chimera I smelled First Blood and shot that one instead and blew it up. The explosion killed a couple of guys (but none from the inside weirdly enough). The other Havocs failed to do anything against the Russes, but the Oblits got a stunned result on one, so saving me from one Battlecannon at least.
The Cultists moved up into the woods, discovered it to be Ironbark (3+ cover) and were happy to stay there...

Turn 1 - Imperial Guard

He stood back in the middle, while moving up on one flank. Basically all tanks missed their targets or I made my saves except one Basilisk that killed a couple of Cultists and a Autocannon Havoc. Pretty lucky turn for me.

Turn 2 - Black Legion

Horrors failed to come in. Screamers came in though. First things first. My Sorcerer got Hallucination off on the large blob of IG. Suddenly they saw traitors everywhere... and killed 12 guardsmen. Awesome. They didn't run off the board though.
Daemon Prince flew up behind the Russes, but despite backarmour, 2 S6 shots and 1 S8 shot only caused a single HP... Missile Havocs caused another glance.
Melta gun in the Rhino in front of the Vanquisher failed to penetrate despite two dice. Autocannon Havocs killed one IG Autocannon. Screamers turbo-boosted over Veterans and killed one.

Turn 2 - Imperial Guard

Sentinels didn't come in. His other large blob of IG discovered the other forest to be carnivorous. Basilisks both hit this turn and killed all but four Cultists in my back unit. They held their ground however. 2 Autocannon Havocs also died. The Cultists squad near his blob hiding behind the hungry jungle also took a couple of wounds, but nothing substantial.
Veterans managed to immobilise my Rhino with my Sorcerer in it, and the previously Hallucinated IG blog got ordered to Bring it Down on my Daemon Prince... and they actually caused a wound. I of course failed to stay in the air as well and took a wound from the impact. So... 2 wounds from S3 guns basically, out of like 10 shots.

Turn 3 - Black Legion

Horrors come in and they Deep Strike in front of the unharmed blob on one flank. My Warlord jumps out of his Rhino and joins the Obliterators for protection. Casts Hallucination on Straken but is denied. The Marine Squad stays inside however, and shoots and blows up the closest Leman Russ. The other Melta squad once again fails to penetrate the Vanquisher (rolled 13 both times!).
The Daemon Prince uses Life Leech on the decimated IG-blob, regains one W and then charges in kills them all. And by being close enough to Strakens CCS actually kills two guys from the Black Mace Curse.
Cultists that had been hanging out in the Ironbark moves out and charges the Veterans. My Champion challenges as he must, gets chopped down... and do not kill him in return. Despite having 4 attacks against 1... The rest of the Cultists kill the remaining Veterans however and run the Sergeant down afterwards.
The Tzerald shoots Flickering Fire on Level 3 (since he wasn't able to use any of his Blessings) and gets 12 shots off (boo!) but kills 9 IG, and then Warpflame kills another. The Horrors are denied however, and sadly I used my Blasted Banner there... so... waste of points in the end.

Turn 3 - Imperial Guard

Sentinels come in, one the side with Rhinos just where he wants them. Shoots back armour... and only stuns it. The remaining Leman Russ moves forward and shoots his Battle Cannon in the face of my Sorcerer... I fail the LOS roll... but pass the save.
Veterans move up next to the IG blob in the Carnivorous jungle and shots some Cultists, with some help from the Basilisks that unit is wiped out. First kill point for the IG!
Straken feels brave and alone he charges my Daemon Prince. He died.

Turn 4 - Black Legion

My Sorcerer leaves the Obliterators, and remembering I get +2S from Fiery Form I reckon I can take the last Hull Point off the Leman Russ and moves up to charge it. Explodes it as well. And of course I take a wound from the explosion and fail my 2+ armour save... Hah.
The melta in the Rhino shoots the Vanquisher once again, but forced to snap shots they miss. Screamers look on in dismay, move up and charge it and explodes it despite only getting a single hit in. That's how you do it. Obliterators can only see one Sentinel, so they wreck it easily. Missile Havocs starts shooting Frag Missiles at the large remaining IG blob, and kills 9 of them (Lascannon failed to do anything again). Soul Blaze stops on that squad. The Tzerald, thanks to Prescience and Level 2 Flickering Fire kills 8 Veterans. The remaining two are killed by the Horrors.
The Daemon Prince gets Doombolt off on both Basilisks (Beam! <3 ), only causes a Weapon Destroyed (Heavy Bolter) on the first one though and fails to hurt the second. He then charges in and kills the wounded one. It Will Not Die made him regain one wound.

Turn 4 - Imperial Guard

The remaining Sentinel manages to wreck the Rhino at last. Basilisk kills a lot of Horrors, and First Rank Fire! Second Rank Fire! Makes sure there is only 1 Horror and the Tzerald left.

Turn 5 - Black Legion

At this point I just mop up, my Sorcerer gets to kill two IG, DP kills Autocannons, Melta on Sentinel, don't remember what killed the last Basilisk. Only a single Guardsman remains afterwards, and that thanks to denying both the Tzerald and the Horrors Flickering Fire...

Turn 5 - Imperial Guard

Last Guardsman tries to kill the last Horror, but misses. The game ends.

13-2 for CSM!


 Lessons Learnt

So, that was kind of unexpected. I'm thankful I didn't have to face any fliers, but looking at all those Large Blasts I thought I'd be a lot more decimated after the first turn. Especially since we ended up rolling Purge the Alien. Luckily for me he had some major troubles finishing off my squads though, so I could hide them away and save some Killpoints that way. The 20 man units really worked in my favour here. Especially getting a 3+ cover forest to hide in was neat...
Other than that I had some awesome luck with Psychic Powers really... Hallucination killing 12 guys, Flickering Fire killing 9 and 8... ouch. Decimating the squads they were looking at really. Then the Daemon Prince was basically unthreatened for the whole game. Perhaps the Vanquisher had been scary, but it was busy trying to kill a single Rhino all game. So the Prince could just reign supreme and pick his targets at his leisure. Just like it should be.
Cultists showed that they can actually do something if you're lucky. Killing 9 Veterans isn't too shabby really. Other than that they just kind of protected my other units by drawing fire and having so many bodies they just didn't run out...
Havocs were so bad this came. My Lascannon killed a single guardsman in the end. Yay. The missiles redeemed themselves after the Leman Russes were gone and killed some 20 guardsmen which was nice... and the Autocannons had about one target on the field, and they would've killed it if not for cover saves. They really had a bad day... but I always seem to have bad days with Havocs...
Obliterators didn't do nearly as much as I'm used to see. But they were still there being a constant threat and soaking up some high damage shots that would've done more damage elsewhere... simply because he couldn't really let them just walk up the board uncontested.
Screamers proved once again, that a squad of three can be really useful. Low threat unit, but still enough to get stuff done. I really like them. Just don't expect so much from them, and try to grab the opportunities as they come and I think you'll be pleasantly surprised by them.
I still don't like Horrors. They're too easy to deny. Even against Guardsmen which is a good target for them they didn't do much due to Deny the Witch. The Herald was lucky though, and he paid for himself for sure.
Pretty odd outcome I think, the game didn't turn out at all like I expected. But a fun one! And I guess my dice took the vacation as a chance to charge up a bit...