So another quick battle report write up, this time I had a game against the Chaos Knights of a fellow local club goer. This guy kicked my ass last time against my Eldar, so I thought I'd bring out the Blood Angels to see if they could fare any better. Spoiler: They didn't.

 

1500 Blood Angels Arks of Omen (Elites):

Primaris Chaplain on Bike - Warlord (gift of foresight), relic (Armour indomitus - 2+, 3++, +1W), angel exemplar (artificer - mantle) mantra of strength

Sanguinary Priest - pack, selfless healer, teeth

 

5 infiltrators - medic

5 Intercessors (ABR's, TH)

 

5 sanguinary guard - 2 fists, 3 swords, 5 inferno

4 sanguinary guard - fist, 3 swords, 4 inferno

sanguinary ancient - fist, inferno, wrath of baal

Death co - 5 inferno, 2 fists, 3 swords

Death co - 5 inferno, 5 swords

 

3x MM Attack bikes.

Whirlwind

3 eradicators, heavy, MMelta. 

 

Secondaries - oaths of moment, shock tactics (figured I could killone armiger/turn) bring it down (I wasn't getting near their DZ for relentless). 

 

Chaos Knights - iconoclast (+1A and AP in 1st round of combat)

Knight despoiler - battle cannon, chainsword, can't be hit on a 1-3, no rerolls, ignores all modifiers thing, 6++ relic,

6x Wardog from top of below image to bottom:

Claw chain - undivided

claw, chain - khorne

melta, gatling - nurgle, -1 S & T within 6"

dual autocannons - tzeentch, auto 6's to hit, regen CP's on 5+

claw chain - beguiling (-1 to hit, to wound, -1 attack in melee !!!!!) behind ruin at bottom

Chaincannon, chainsword, deepstrike upgrade.

 

Secondaries - 2 knight ones, one is a guaranteed 5VP per turn, one is 4VP every time you perform an action (harder to perform ones for thousand Sons are only worth 3VP), grind them down. 

 

Deployment

 

 

Being a bit lacking in other cover, I huddled pretty much behind that central obscuring ruin, the infils zones out my right flank that would expose the whirly, I didn't see the melta lance armier, I'm sure I asked if they were all chainsword/claw and the answer was yes so I put my MM bikes in the open, which I think cost me the game. DC with the fists were deployed forwards to try and get a fast kill.

 

 

 

CK T1

I lost first turn and forlorned the DC behind the central ruin, but damn armigers with 14" movement still caught them. Slaanesh dog takes the west objective, undy dog the east, tzendog theeir home objective. Khornedog shot forwards and charged the DC. I 5+++'d them and only 2 died, they beat 8 wounds off the armiger in return. Tzendog starts action in morale phase.

 

The nurgle armiger that was miles away feom the bikes shot across the table and shot the attack bikes, as did everything else, and wiped them from the board - I should have deployed them in the main ruin, or by the priest. Oh well. Holds 3 objectives, all in dread range, 5VP. 

 

BAT1

Intercessors advance onto west objective. Priest jumps forward and heals then ress's a DC member. SG stay hidden, other DC2 jump forwards to attack the slandog, 5 inferno pistols do nothing, they charge in and do 1-2 wounds. DC1 inferno the khorndog for 4 damage, biker chappy gets off mantra and charges the Undog on west objective, taking it down to 4w. Undog hits back,  gets 4 wounds through, I activate indomitus and pass 4 saves on a 4+. Priest realises he's vulnerable to a charge from the despoiler to charges the khorndog and finishes it off and DC consolidate to be within 6" of centre. 4VP for oaths, 2VP for within 6" of centre. 5-6 to BA

 

CKT2

12 for primaries. Undog falls back, from chappy, nurdog shoots all at him and knocks off 4w. Despolier strides to central objective. Shooting wipes DC1, Slandog wipes DC2. Morale action completes (4VP) in range of all objectives for 5 VP. 26 - 6 knights. 

 

BAT2

One objective (4). whirly shoots and suppresses the despoiler. Sanguard all jump out to surround despoiler, 9 melta range inferno pistols shots, zero damage (4+ to hit, 4+ to wound, 4+ invuln, no rerolls against him at all). All charge in, one dies on overwatch. CK player pops -1D for the entire phase strat and 8 sanguard do 14 damage (would have been 28, enough to kill it, but for 2cp he blocked 14 damage). Knight wipes the 3 man SG unit in return. Priest jumps to heal chaplain back to 7w, eradicators come on to the east to deal with nurdog and shoot it dead. Chaplain fails mantra, charges undog and does nothing, knocked down to 4w again in return. I get 4 for oaths, 0 for others. Knights killed 2 to my 2 so no grind. 26 - 14 knights

 

CKT3

12 for primaries. Despolier leaves combat and kills 2 eradicators, then charges and wipes the 5 man SG unit (they should have struck first as the despoiler was suppressed, however I forgot. They might have just killed it as he didn't have the CP for the -1D this time. Oh well. Undog dies to my chaplain, finally. warp thing completes for 4VP again, within 12" range of all objectives (!!!!!!) for 5 VP, then another 3 for killing a unit and being within 6" of the centre. 52 - 14 knights. 

 

BA T3.

I should have called it here. I get 8 primary, 4 for shock assault as the undog controlled the objective at the start of the game turn. Erads are revived and take pot shots at the despolier. Nothing. Knights get 2 for grind. 54 - 26 knights.

 

I'd killed 3 dogs, so would get +6, maybe 16 more for primary for 58 total with painted, while knights would have maxed out. 

 

 

No photos as I was too into the tense game, but ths is T3

 

 

This was my second time playing Chaos Knights, and my second time getting an absolute pasting from them. They seem to have absolutely zero weaknesses, and have now been gifted with exceptionally easy to do, high scoring secondaries (guaranteed 7 VP per turn if you're within 12" of 3 objectives, and can stay on one through your opponent's turn). One big knight can essentially be immune to low volume high damage fire with a 4+ to hit, 4+ invuln, no rerolls against it. 16 lascannons shooting it would do on average 11 damage. 

 

I was thinking I should have ignored them and tried to play the mission, but their secondaries are so un-interactive that I cannot even outscore them on those stakes, and the dogs are objective secured, 5 models, so I can't even flip them off those unless I can kill them in one round. In retrospect, I should have sent the sanguard after the dogs, then maybe just ignored the big knight? The dogs were the ones doing the scoring after all. I might have to write that on my hand. I did make serious deployment errors and my skilled opponent punished me for them, and I also focussed on the big knight, which I guess was the distraction. I need to wipe the smaller ones. I'll keep saying it until I remember to do it! 

 

I'm very rusty with my BA not having played them seriously since the release of the Thousand Sons codex and I have a lot to work on with them. Angel's sacrifice would have helped if I'd got the sanguard in with the big knight along with the chaplain, chappy could have deflected some of the damage. I'm torn between armour indomitus for defence, the relic crozius for hitting S8 and offence, and angelic visage for objective flipping. Maybe I need to try out the biker chapter master again. 

 

Anyone have any tips for countering chaos knights?