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Hey guys, super quick battle report here. I know the points will be somewhat wonky, but I tried my best, and the IG guy was using his old points for everything, so I was probably a touch inflated compared to him. We played the 4 pillars from the new mission book. I ended with a list like this: - Khan - Phobos Libby - Chaplain w/jump pack (Warlord - Master of Snares) - 5 Intercessors (1 w/hammer) - 5 Assault Intercessors - 5 Incursors - 3 Eradicators in a Repulsor (Encirclement) - Invictor - Redemptor (tried Macroplasma.. ugh.) - Bike squad 4 inc Hammer, and MM attack bike - Outrider squad - Speeder with Typhoon - Thunderfire Cannon - Repulsor - 2 x Impulsors So the IG are loaded with tanks, flamer tanks, Chimeras, a Command Tank with a 2+ save and dual battle cannons shots is always fun! 2 x Basilisks, 1 Manticore. 30 Conscripts, a large squad of Bullgryn. I get first turn.... or it might have been a fast game! We used plenty of Obscuring Ruins and I deployed super defensive (I've learned my lesson) but still with all the indirect I think I would have been in trouble. Here's a quick rundown of the game: Early Game: - As said I get first turn. I keep the Speeder back, the TFC in my far right corner (planning for taking Quarters in secondary.) I have a decent first turn.... - The Impulsors fly up, and to the left of a central ruin to get at least SOME protection from Line of Sight shooting. - I was aggressive with my Phobos Libby, Incursors, and Invictor. I put the Redemptor, 3 Eradiators (inside) Repulsor in Encirclement. - I get off the power of no overwatch on my Invictor. The Invictor moves up, and starts firing away at a Hellhound, and the rest of the army manages to kill it. - Here's my recently 'repainted' Invictor.... deployed with kill in his heart, he's about to go for a first turn charge... - The right side of my table, I decided to go down the opposite flank and use the Outriders to take down as many of his Conscript screen as possible. I had to advance to make sure of a T1 charge.... I knew I probably wouldn't widdle them all down, but I expected to kill a lot more than I did... Because I had to use a 1 CP strat to shoot normal (stuck with Bolt Rifles on Outriders). So I shoot a fair amount of them, but my hits/wounds are horrible. - I charged the Outriders in... maybe in total between shooting and assault I kill.. .maybe 10? (Maybe less now that I think of it.) In case you're wondering my TFC fired twice, and HAD to target a 3 Lascannon heavy team parked on a building. It had excellent line of sight across the table, I had to kill them. It took a full two rounds of TFC fire to do it! - Here I get a T1 assault off, and kill this 'acid' flamer tank which would have been really rough on me auto wounding infantry on 2's. The Invictor did his job, cleared it out, and this gave me 3 T1 kills. - As a side note I advanced Outriders that turn and gave them a 3++ Invuln save from shooting. I knew he would pull back his Conscripts, and the Outriders would see a TON of firepower as a result. - It turned out that was a good idea, they soaked up a lot. So although the Outriders killed VERY little, they did soak up some good firepower. The bad news is I used a TON of CP in that first turn. - Astra Turn was no surprise. I did fair extremely well. Somehow my Speeder didn't take a wound! My outriders as mentioned took a beating. And finally died. - my Bikes lost 1 dude, and the rest of his firepower had to be poured into my Invictor. It was a lot to take, and I wish I could have saved him but he inevitably died, but at least my opponent would not kill more than me in T1 (and he took the First Strike secondary so that would have been some more points for him.) - Because of my aggressive start, I do score 4 quarters for 3 VP. Turn 2: - This is where things heat up, but I really don't do that well.... - My shooting is okay, not great. The Redemptor comes in from reserves, but I hold on to the Eradicators and the Repulsor, there just isn't a good spot for them. - Redemptor over charges Macroplasma at a Chimera in front of him, causes one wound to himself, and a total of 2 damage to the Chimera! Terrible. - TFC continues to wail away. Netting me a lot of conscripts but I can't afford to double fire it. - Speeder takes 6 wounds off a hellhound. - The Impulsors kind of bleed out another troop squad. But the big multi assault is coming... - First off the Bikes have the Anti-overwatch power on them... they multi charge the Bullgryn, and a flamer Chimera. Then the 5 Assault Intercessors hit the Bullgryn. Then Khan hits the Bullgryn, then finally the Chaplain goes in. (He has his litanies off though.) - You may be thinking... why am I stupid enough to put my chaplain in CC? I decided that with Master of Snares, and the way Bullgryn are, if one lives... well we'll see... - So the big question: Who do I go first with, I know he's going to interrupt. - I decide my most endangered squad is the Assault Intercessors... it's important to note something I forgot, my second Phobos Libby power went off against the Bullgryn, making them -1 leadership, and -1 to hit until my next psychic phase. - The intercessors reroll all to hit, all to wound and wound on 4's thanks to charging along side Khan (+1 to wound) and Chappy (re rolls) - The Bullgryn's interrupt. They go after the bikers, and kill all but 2, leaving the hammer, and the Attack bike down by 2 wounds. That was pretty brutal. And in hind sight, I think he would have killed the Chaplain!!! - Between the bikers, the chaplain, and the Khan (actually including the Assault Intercessors) I kill ALL but 1 Bullgryn. - Guess what... he rolls a 1 for Morale. He doesn't run.... next turn he tries to Fall Back with Bullgryn so he can shoot the bikes, my Assault Intercessors and my HQ's.... I roll a 4, he's stuck in. (I had to point this moment out because I said there was still a lot of validity in Master of Snares in 9th and I think this moment may have saved every model in that little skirmish.) - The Astra hit back hard as usual. HIs command tank is a beast, but the Manticore flubs it, and he has troops pushing in with a Hellhound and 2 Chimeras pushing in on my right flank since that is my weak side now. - He shoots away, and I'll tell you these flame tanks EVEN in close combat are gross. They are killing away at bikes, and intercessors. Somehow my Redemptor only loses 4 wounds total. Wow. If only HE WOULD DO SOMETHING! - He doesn't like where my Hammer/Assault Bolter Intercessors are deep in his zone, so he lines up a few tanks to take care of them, but somehow only 1 dies. - From the Astra perspective: Lower left he has his Manticore, and out of picture to the left of it is his Command Tank that's been wailing away on me. In his T2 you can see my Intercessors are hugging a sheer wall. He can't see them from the other side of the wall. This forces him to move 2 tanks upwards so he can shoot/flame me through the far hole in the wall. - In Turn 3 my repulsor comes in, and I really don't where to put it. There is no good spot, but now that he has moved his flame tanks/Chimera's up towards my still undamaged Speeder, I have range for everything. I realize the Repulsor can't shoot all its Storm Bolters in 9th because it counts as moving now? So I don't shoot half of those shots.... and both lascannon mounts are horrible. I take 1 wound off of his Command tank, and 2 wounds off of a Chimera. That's with 4 lascannons and 4 Stormbolter shots. - I use a Strat to get the Eradicators out of the Repulsor, and fire all 6 shots at the damaged Chimera in front of them, and do a total of 5 damage!!! Blah... the tank has 1 wound left. - My Redemptor continues to do nothing... overcharge, take a wound, cause 2 wounds... but at least he charges a remnant troop squad standing on an Objective and kills him. - Above from the Astra Perspective: My Hammer intercessors are about to try to assault his Manticore, and his Command Tank. - The Phobos Libby gets off the anti-overwatch power. I succeed on a 6! His primaris psyker tries to deny it.... he rolls snake eyes! He CP rerolls both dice, fails again! Big break for me. - I should back up... I think we both agreed he made a mistake in his T2 by charging the Intercessors with a 10 man squad. I cleared all but 2 out and this left me a gap to Charge through the wall into his 2 tanks... - So with the psychic power protecting them, I charge the squad successfully into his two big tanks. I also get my remaining Assault Intercessors into the Manticore, and my Chappy gets in to the Manticore too (setting up for Master of Snares). This is a weird one... - I somehow kill the manticore with rerolls from chappy, and +1 to wound from Khan. I do VERY little damage to the Command tank as it has a 2+ save all game which is super annoying on a T8 tank.... anyway, the command tank is stuck in, but the Manticore dies, and he rolls for an explosion, and thankfully it does not explode (I've lost SO many models from explosions lately). Anyway he re rolls the dice into a 6! I tell him he can't CP re roll an explosion.... I sure hope I was right about that, because for the heck of it he rolled out all results and I would have lost almost everything including the Warlord Chappy. - So assuming I was right, we continue and I have the table well in hand now for quarters and I'm scoring about 15 primary points a turn now from owning 3 Obj's and more than him... - His turn his Basilisks wail away on my Intercessors and they die in droves. Nothing I can do about that. I just can't reach the conrner where he's hidden his Basilisks. - For a side note, if the Manticore had lived, and I kept it stuck in, He would not be able to shoot at any of that..... oh well. - The infantry he has is really thin, but my Incursors were down to 3 models (protecting the Libby from being shot at.) He blows them up , and my libby is left alone. - The Assault intercessors are down to 2 models, so with one of his Basilisks he targets my Warlord Chaplain who is easily killed two times over. - He doesn't shoot Khan, he instead tries to take out my Redemptor Dread which is on an Objective, but he doesn't have much left to shoot, and his Command tank just Fell Back so can't shoot..... With that we call the game. I'm up a lot on points. He had a lot of points though and we realized he forgot to shoot my bikes in CC of a Chimera, they both died! Conclusion: - Lots came out of this. I felt like the failure units in my army were: Repulsor. Potentially I should have started with this on the table instead of Encirclement. - Fail unit number 2: Redemptor. Probably still would have Encircled it, but it just stunk all game. The Macroplasma was incredibly dissapointing. - Fail unit 3: Outriders. Just bad. Not even close to making their points back. They need rerolls and too many CP. - Great unit: Chappy with Master of Snares. Probably won me the game. - Great Unit: Assault Intercessors and Impulsors. Really good performers and even with a points hike, I feel the Impulsors are still mandatory in 9th. - Great Unit: Typhoon. Moves 16" to grab objectives. No one wants to shoot at it as it feels low threat, but it continually did 4-5 wounds on average per turn to tanks. - The Phobos Libby always performs for me. .. so not bad for him. - Incursors were 'meh' but had to do what they had to do. It's an ugly job I give them, but they usually do so-so. - Invictor Warsuit. Mandatory for my playstyle with this army. I was about to paint him and the Impulsors as Ultramarines. Now I don't know. The Warsuit with the autocannon build is my new goto in 9th. He actually ditched out a bunch of minor wounds to tanks/infantry and then died in glory as he punched out a tank. He usually does well like this or is targeted early on. Overall Observations of 9th: - It still feels like a shooty game. Encirclement is of dubious use now on this small table. In all my 9th ed games I have found this to be the case. Either you plan for encirclement and you ignore center table or you have trouble getting anything in. - Tanks shooting in CC is viscous! The amount of damage I took in CC was ridiculous. This made me feel my Ultramarines are probably going to fare a lot better, unless I figure out a list. - I still feel the assault is 'good' but not great. A lot of armies will give us trouble with it, so I feel we have to back it up with a good dose of strong firepower. - That said by the end of T3, I had very little left. Dangerously close to losing ALL characters. So as nice as the armourment is for a Repulsor, I think it MUST go in favour of more bodies moving up to protect characters. - Standard bikes are still superior in my mind to Outriders. Outriders are relegated to 'annoyances' where the Multimelta bike, and hammer bike with 4 ablative wound bikes can shoot very well still, and put serious damage on Tanks just shooting, and then the hammer sarge is still a real threat in CC. That's about it for now. It was a strong win, but my opponent definitely would do some things differently. Those tanks are no joke, I think Astra is a real contender in 9th. Thanks for checking this out.