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So here's something I thought I'd turn into a series. I'm going to try to play primarily Primaris marines, and make a series out of it. But to be honest for the past couple of months this is how I've been playing my marines since the codex came out (Previous to that with the index I used quite a mix which was effective). Doing a little teaser here.... this moment is a critical scene later in the battle: +++ Ultra's fight for their lives. Surrounded by floods of infantry, and iron might of the Steel Legion.... with the guidance of Tigurius, do the Ultra's stand a chance? +++ This game is Maelstrom at 2K. My UM army from memory: - Tigurius - Primaris Captain with Fist and Relic Halo - Lt. - 5 scouts hvy bolter - 5 scouts - 5 Intercessors w/Grenade launcher - Repulsor - Redemptor - 3 Aggressors - Ancient - 10 Reivers - 3 Inceptors - 5 Helblasters - 5 Helblasters (assault variant) IG army from memory: Steel Legion - Cmd Tanks: Punisher (not Pask!) - Russ - 4 Chimera's with troops (some characters, priests etc) - 3 Sentinels Autocannons - 1 Lascannon Sentinel - Manticore - Basilisk - Hellhound - 2 Sqds of Scions with melta/plasma and cmdr. The Scenario: Maelstrom - each player starts with one objective but only draws cards for each objective they control from turn 2 on. Deployment - Quarters. The middle bubble 18" is no man's land. - Using the FAQ I add one to my roll to go first. And deployment looked like this: ++ UM Deploy - Scouts forward on flanks - Aggressors embarked with characters. ++ The Astra deployment: ++ From the Steel Legion table quarter. ++ The Game: - Astra fail to steal the initiative. - Shortly after movement, I completely forget my Psychic phase. I pull a card for killing a unit.... this should be doable! - The Reivers back the scouts on the left flank by grav chute-ing right to the side of the building for some cover, and surround the Inceptors to insulate them. ++ Reivers mean business. Deathmasks? Check. Grave Chutes? Check. Bullets with no AP? Check. ++ - This flank opens up but can't kill the single tank. It's horrible to admit, but one thing I counted on was the -1 AP from the Inceptors. News flash: Steel Legion ignore the AP on all AP-1 weapons, thus rendering about 90% of my army incapable of modifying vehicles saves! Darn you Belasarius... darn you to hell. - The mid table opens up. I don't move the Redemptor because I don't want it hitting on 4's with the HOG. It really doesn't matter... it does some fair damage to a Punisher and the Line of Sight forces the rest of the army to go after other tanks... the scouts concentrate a Heavy Bolter strategem on the right flank to deal three mortal wounds to the Hellhound. - Helblasters, Repulsor, Aggressors open up on tanks but the shots from the lascannons only cause one wound for 5 wounds on the command tank. Not good... No other shooting I have can do anything. I get desperate with overcharging Helblasters on a high Scaffold and use Scions of Guilliman on the assault blasters, causing just enough wounds to blow up the Hellhound. I had to do this for the objective card and First Blood... giving me 2 Points. But I don't feel good about this.. .the army largely flashed against the armour, with only my 2 solo lascannon shots having ANY meaning against Steel Legion armour saves. ++ 2 Squds of Scions with Melta and Plasma. Exactly what my Repulsor needs....++ - Astra show up in my zone with the Scions and I consider using an "Auspex Scan" but with only 5 Intercessors I didn't think it was worth the 2 CP's to hit his dudes in cover.... - Astra obviously see the Repulsor as my only real threat to the army. Lucky for me he can't complete his card as it's an objective on the UM side of the table. As he starts shooting Tigurius uses his special ability to make the Repulsor -1 to hit. This works... to a degree but the amount of firepower hitting the Repulsor from all angles is immense... with help from the Scions, the Repulsor blows sky high. That's it for my real vehicle damage. He puts additional indirect fire onto the closest Helblaster squad. I take 4 wounds killing 2... neither get back up from the Ancient. - The Agressors are always shot up early, but they vaporize in T1, and only one shoots back (fails to do anything). The right flank scouts with the heavy bolter are also vaporized. ++ Here we are... bottom of T2. Astra start to push forward hard. ++ Mid Game: - In turn 2 the UM realize they have to take down some heavy vehicles as this is already looking like a slaughterfest. With the Repulsor being sent back to Belasarius' scrap yard, it's up to the Redemptor. Unfortunately I have to move it. With some assistance it does a few wounds to a tank, but not enough to fully damage one. I think I get a Chimera down this turn. But it's mostly the Heavy Flamer that does damage to Steel Legion infantry looking for glory. - Again the lack of AP-1 doing any modifying is very punishing. Most of my army is wounding on a 5 or 6. The tanks are tearing the Ultra's apart. Sadly the best hope is on the left flank where he can't quite get a bead on the infiltrators, but again with Assault Heavy Bolters, I do no modification to Steel Legion armour so for example I counted.... and this is embarrassing... but I counted 48 shots from Reivers, Inceptors, scouts, and the Redemptor to take TWO final wounds off of a Chimera. ++ Inceptors seek cover, but expose themselves to a lot of firepower. Meanwhile the severely wounded Chimera would take 48 shots to take out of the game. Reivers get ready to assault...++ - Reivers commit to a multi assault killing squads down to 1 or 2 guys. Some how I manage to score a point putting Ultra's up 3 - 0. but the Steel Legion hit back hard.... ++ Astra push back and even with Tigrius' -1 to hit, the Redemptor goes down to 3 wounds quickly. At three wounds with movement the Redemptor is essentially useless.++ - Things looks grim in Astra T2. Yet the Astra can't complete their objective. - Astra with a priest decide to assault the captain and remaining Helblasters. One Helblaster survives and the Captain fists these brazen fools in the face for their misguided sense of heroism, but the writing is on the wall... there are very few Primaris left. - The Chimera's would advance, into the Assault Helblaster unit, while shooting would take care of most of the Ultra core units. Late Game: - In a true sense of desperation the Ultra's try to hit the command tank on the left flank: ++ Desperate assault: The Reivers make contact with the Punisher, assault, but cannot wound. It simply drives off. The Inceptor loses one of its mates to overwatch and DUAL assaults the Lascannon Sentinel and the Basilisk! However both would be fine and simply move away. This bought the Ultra's nothing but a second of breathing room preventing fire from these units. ++ - The inability to cause AP adjustments to the tanks is literally killing the Ultra's. Some tanks are damaged, but mostly functional. - The Intercessors are still dealing with the Scions in the bottom corner. One squad was shot up, and then assaulted to death. This allows the other squad to break out into the open to shoot at the redemptor. - The Redemptor flames some more useless flesh bags, but the retreating Helblaster assault squad is unable to really do much to the Chimera with the -1 to hit I was afraid of overcharge effects... it turns out I should have done it.... ++ The Intercessors kill off the remaining Scions in the ruins, but it took too long to finish the squad off, and now they can only watch on as the Scions would melta the Redemptor to slag. ++ - Although Ultra's score again going up 4-0 the Steel Legion now have two 'Defend' Cards which are auto complete in my T4. So in T3 after the Redemptor is destroyed, he turns his attention to my Reivers who falied to take the final wounds off of the Punisher command tank and they are killed to a man. The failed assaulting Inceptor is likewise killed. - The last Helblasters are killed. All that remains is Tigurius, the Captain, LT, Ancient and 4 Intercessors I decide to concede. With no board presence, and zero chance of killing his tanks (all are still on the table, only a few Chimera's died), the Ultra's are pasted pretty hard in this one. Conclusions: - I considered playing '7th edition' marines in this one. IE: Get a massive Maelstrom lead, hide for the game. But I never had enough board presence to have more than one objective card. Although I accomplished them all, and had first turn, it never gave me the lead I needed to hide it out. - Steel Legion ignoring -1 Ap was so brutal I can't tell you how dehabilitating this is to a Primarily Primaris army. I would have needed Multi repulsors and 4 squads of Helblasters. The ineffectiveness of the Repulsor made a bad situation worse. Too much fire power on the other end meant I was losing either the Redemptor or the Repulsor in T1. I would lose one per turn rendering the army incapable of damage. - Hind sight being 20/20 I should have pushed the Redemptor forward and preyed to the Emperor. I needed to assault the tanks. I actually saw for the first time a scenario where the Macroplasma Incinerator is actually better than the HOG... and this would have been it. However moving forward, overcharging is a super dangerous idea. - I still have a love/hate of the Redemptor. I love the model, I think it stinks still. If I could rip off the Icarus I would. The damage chart is so punishing to this unit. I still believe a vanilla dread, or Contemptor or Ven dread are all superior. I have 2 Redemptors and have played them (together) numerous times. I've never felt they pulled their weight. - Immediate knee jerk reaction is to add vanilla marines, but I'm trying not to. My missile Devs would have been huge. A Stormraven, and vanilla razor backs... all decent options. - My test unit: the Reivers were horrible. I knew I wouldn't like the 0AP on the guns and a parking lot list had nothing to fear from this unit. the Steel Legion lack of reaction until the last minute is proof of this. The Reivers had no effect in the game. - Agressors. Fun but always dead. This was a tough game for them. There was no valid target for 0AP weaponry. But then again the mass of the Primaris had no AP in this game! - Hopefully I will have some good changes to equal this out. But by no means was the Astra list a power gaming list. I would consider that list very average. If anything it shows the weakness of Primaris and exploited it nicely. Back to the drawing board....

So I promised I would try to batrep more of my games. And even though I said I didn't like to play or batrep armies I haven't painted, most people said they didn't care and would be okay with it. Nonetheless I've skipped some pictures due to too many 'black figs' just melting into the background making for ugly pictures. That being said I did take some pictures of this blood bath against the horrid Ork Horde. Prot Batrep: 1850 points. Maelstrom (The Infernus Bolter Experiment Game) The Ork Biker List: Zardsnark (?) the guy with skilled rider that unlocks bikes as troops. Warboss with a bike/fist in the secondary biker squad. 2 very large biker squads with Nobs with Fists, and FnP guys. 2 trucks with 12 boyz (they have 4+ saves) 1 truck with Mega Armoured Nobs (always a threat in my games) 1 truck with Tankbustas (lots of AP3 here.) Prot's Deathwatch: Blackspear o' Green Death! Watch master (Beacon Angelis) Kill Team: Basic squad in a rhino with 2 Infernus Bolters Watch Company: Captain Artemis, 3 x Aquila Teams (1 Pod in squad with Librarian with Tome of Ectoclades), 1 x Malleus Team (Artemis here in POD) (2 hammer requirement, 1 Vanguard with Heavy Hammer) Corvus Blackstar, Infernum Halo. (Watch Master joins the Aquila team with the Libby in a pod) We played a basic Maelstrom. The long board edge deployment and 3 Maelstrom Cards per turn. Early Game: - I win the roll off for First turn/Deployment. Some stalker bolter dudes take cover with a Cyclone Termie out front in ruins. I plop down a Rhino with 2 Infernus Hvy Bolters in it. - He deploys a gob of bikes on his back line, and spreads it the length of the table edge. With the Trucks, etc, I am feeling ridiculously outnumbered. - He fails to seize the initiative. - My first turn involves a heavy alpha strike: Pod 1 comes down with Watch Master, Termie w/Assault cannon+melta Fist, 3 Frag Cannons, and the Termie Libby (rolled on Librarius... this is huge... I got re-roll all saves). The Alpha hits mega hard. 6 Flames (no 3+ jink) and a few rends make for 24 Wounds in total.) Even with FnP all bikes but 2 are dead after all is said and done. His Warlord, Zarsnark or whatever, is one of the two remaining bikes. They fail Moral, and run off the table. + The Emperor's Wrath knows no fear. The Alpha Strike hits very hard. + - I tell him to keep his Warlord on the table because he feels so defeated at this point I feel bad, and I know he can still come back as all my games have shown me; the Deathwatch fade very fast. - His return action is to sand bag my squad with a Truck Load of 4+ save boyz, but the Overwatch (re-roll ones) including all the FragCannons is strong... only 9 Boyz make it in. With all my Re-roll saves, I lose nothing and kill the squad. - His turn involves a TON of bikes turboing up, and we both score points. His mega Armoured Nobs are a big concern though. They always cause me trouble because of lack of AP2 and they're tough buggers to get rid off. Mid Game: - We are slogging it out. My HQ Watch Master Aquila is only missing 2 marines because of Librarius re-rolls. I perils 2 times. But save one of them... - Unfortunately my Rhino Squad lets the bike squad take two heavy flamers from the truck, but with FnP he saves most. The Rhino is inevitably destroyed, the Kill Team rolls out and prepares for the Xenos charge. The overwatch from the 2 heavy flamers kills a bike outright. He rolls too short to make the charge, however he gets to re roll one of those dice and makes the charge. + The Rhino is blown, and the contents (below picture frame) are about to be charged by a ton of bikes. + The Kill Team just won't die though. Two guys stay there, so I can't shoot him on my turn! - The Corvus comes in and blows a truck up. The contents spill out and my Stalker/Inefrnum Hvy Bolter/Cyclone Team kill the entire contents (got pretty lucky). - An empty truck blocks my Watchmaster/Libbie/Aquila squad and they take FOREVER to get anywhere. - Due to having my Corvus in reserve at start of turn, I get in all my reserves, including Artemis and Malleus squad. They come down with combi Melta's and look to stall the Mega Armoured Nobs. The Truck blows up, but the contents aren't pinned... Artemis prepares for the charge! - Three Mega Armoured Nobs charge Artemis. The Malleus team is ready though. A Termie with Hammer/Shield is deflecting Fist Blows left and right, but he dies as his shield does not hold long enough.... Artemis takes a challenge from a Nob with Fist (normally I would not do this but I wanted to test...) THE BOMB! I choose the bomb, re-rolling 1's to hit as per my Mission Tactics. Artemis Rolls a HIT! But the result is a 1D wound, which the Nob happily accepts with a bloody mouth, and fists Artemis to the ground in one blow. The Vanguard with Heavy Hammer watches this unfold, and with unleashed hatred smites the remaining 2 Nobs into dust with the Heavy Hammer. The Malleus squad is hurt, but still able to bite back. End Game: - Finally my Rhino squad dies, but in my turn, so the Ork Bikers now turn their attention to the Stalker/Termie squad in my backfield. They die a horrible death unable to handle the mutlitude of fists, and FnP. - The Corvus spins around in Hover mode and picks up an objective marker, anticpating the use of the Angelis Beacon. I wanted to use the Corvus to grab the Watch Master Aquila because they've been out of the game so long (held back by trucks, then another squad). BUT one bloody Stalker Marine would NOT die! So I had to burn the Angelis to get the Marine out of CC with his Warboss Bike unit so I could actually shoot at the buggers! So the marine is out of close combat. The 2 remaining Frag Cannons shoot at the Warboss biker squad, I only manage to kill one bike (I'm 2 feet away) and FnP saves the rest of the severely depleted biker squad. - So the Corvus is now angled to take shots. The remaining Missiles don't do anything (biker jinks 3+) and all I have is the Assault Cannon on it. I pump 4 shots into the bikers, with twin linking all hit, and then I roll to wound..... + This is the Corvus "to wound" rolls. This is me crying. This is me wishing the Corvus got to re-roll 1's on "to wound". + - The war goes on. His 4 bikes are free. My Malleus Kill Team is missing Artemis and the Termie but a Shotgunner, 2 combi weapon guys, and the Heavy Hammer Vanguard remain. I need a challenge this turn to get an Objective point. We are within 2 points of each other. For the first time all game, I get to charge him. Team Malleus challenges.... but all members die before the Vanguard swings. D'oh. - In the next turn the remainder of that ork squad is wiped by my Corvus shooting. But I lose another squad in the process. - All I have left is 2 pods, the Watch Master Aquila squad, and the Corvus. All he has left is 3 bikers, including his Warboss and FnP dude. He has drawn his cards and it comes down to this: + The Filthy Xenos MUST defeat the Watch Master (my Warlord) to win the game by points. However it's all they have left, and the planet around this battle is burning with the stench of dead Orks.... and Artemis, let's not forget Artemis. + - In my turn something critical does happen leading to this moment.... in the Psychic phase the Librarian fails his roll for "Force" which I wanted to deny FnP. So the Ork player, greedily hordes his psychic denial dice in anticipation of my next power..... Librarius re-rolls on all saves... I pass it with only 2 dice... a pair of 6's causing me to take another perils wound, and LOSE the power for the rest of the game! D'oh. The Ork player rolls 5 dice, and also gets 2 6's denying my power! WOW did that ever suck. - His cards and his losing by 2 points means he must kill my Warlord. I and win the Close Combat. He charges, and challenges. Now I know to get a guaranteed win all I have do is send a Sargeant in for the Challenge. It's guaranteed. But instead I send in the Watch Master to the challenge. Stupid? Perhaps, but this is Deathwatch. - The fight ensues and he loses the bikers giving him FnP. All that's left is our challenge. The Watch Master only does one wound to the T6 Biker! The Warboss in turn hits multiple times with his fist! WAIT I yell... let roll a Block from the Custodes Spear.... and the Watch Maser Fails to block, fails a few 4+ invulns and dies!!!! - The Warboss is celebrating... beating his chest in victory. My Warlord is dead and he's fist pumping in the air, just as my Librarian with Axe cuts his head off in the middle of his goading. The Orks are dead... completely wiped. So in the end, even though he needed two points, he got one, but lost combat, and of course even so he was wiped to a man giving the Deathwatch a narrow victory. In other news Artemis was found burried to his neckline in the earth still breathing. it turns out the fist blow deflected off his shoulder plate and drove him into the ground alive. Better yet, Artemis found his grenade. So he'll get another shot with it. Thanks for reading this batrep!