Nico's Treatise on Bayonet Stabbing(2nd Tourney rpt done p3)

[WarriorFish]

Exciting stuff, the pictures are really good too. Hopefully these traitors get what they deserve, even if their army does look nice :P

[Nicodemus Doloroso]

... behind Lancemaster Smerdyakov roared the engines of another approaching vehicle, coming up on his rear fast. He scarcely had time to turn his head to see a second enemy Hellhound before gouts of flaming prometheum spewed from its main weapon.

While on the other side of the battlefield, Lord Inquisitor Soulis' received the report grimly from his warband that they had secured a crate and re-embarked into their Land Raider but had no viable targets. S/Lt. Golunski reported that a chimera with meltaguns had appeared and alpha-struck his own chimera, leaving his troops in the open but still in the fight. His own progress towards the supply crate to the left of the ruined manufactorum was cut-off by a Chimera roaring in front of him. The top hatch opened and he had no time to hit the ground or fall back before plasma guns unleashed hell hotter than suns in his direction. His armour, already heavily dented by the onslaught from the Punisher was no match for such fury, and though Soulis dove back behind the hill he was seared badly and his suit reduced to little more than wreckage. He was out of the fight.

TURN THREE

The situation was deteriorating rapidly. S/Lt. Golunski had just lost communications with Lord Inquisitor Soulis. The battlefield was chaos with enemy troops appearing on all sides, apparently having entirely enveloped the force. Maj. Zaiyontz was still on the field, however, and had secured one of the all-important supply crates so necessary to their continued progress. For now, the lieutenant could but take care of his section of the field and knock out that enemy chimera before its meltagunners could take out the Demolisher.

With a deafening bellow, the Demolisher opened-up with its main cannon, and that chimera was torn in half by the violence of a direct hit. Amazingly, its crew poured out, but right into Golunski's sights.

"Let the heretics taste cleansing flame!" He shouted, and his squad's heavy flamer opened up, incinerating the tightly packed troops as they bailed out of their wrecked vehicle. Hotshot lasguns finished off the few who survived the inferno.

Across the field, Hydra Autocannons crackled. Then Golunski was nearly knocked down by an explosion he didn't expect. Regaining his footing, he looked back to the rear and saw that a singed but defiant section from Lt. Khodkievich's platoon had charged the Hellhound back there. Their krak grenades had found the fuel tanks and brewed the thing up. In another instant, two loud bangs, followed by more, like popcorn, sounded to the left, where the other section from First Platoon and wrecked the two enemy tanks in the centre and their ammunition supplies were now cooking off.

S/Lt. Golunski's pleasure at these events was short-lived, however, as yet another new Chimera sped onto the field directly towards the two wrecked tanks in the centre. With its hull-mounted heavy flamer it doused the men who had bravely charged the two tanks and they disappeared from view -- all burnt to ash, no doubt. While a rumbling rearward signalled that another enemy vehicle had outflanked them and a Leman Russ Battle Tank rumbled onto the scene.

"Take cover!" He shouted, as its turret turned towards his men and unleashed an HE round. Golunski was thrown into the air and the round landed directly in the midst of his men. He slammed back into the ground, knocking the wind out of him. He struggled up, gasping for breath, to see that only one of his meltagunners remained with him.

TURN FOUR:

"Take out that fething tank!" Lt. Khodkievich bellowed at the men of second section. There were only three of them, but they *had* to get that tank which had a wide-open view of him and Maj. Zaiyontz.

Khodkievich jogged around the hill, gaining some cover from the tank but was confronted with an enemy Chimera and a Hellhound approaching around the carcasses of the two tanks his men had sacrified their lives taking out in the centre. Blasted cowards, he thought, gripping his power sword (which had not even come close to tasting traitor blood this battle) impotently. To make matters worse, the Lord Inquisitor was down and his warband seemed to be doing little more than milling about in the centre -- their lascannons unable to damage anything this entire engagement.

The Hydra chattered away with its autocannons behind but had no discernable impact on the other Chimera approaching from that direction.

The ground shuddered and Khodkievich staggered as an HE round from the Land Raider impacted nearby, right where Maj Zaiyontz and his command squad had been. Golunski looked back to Commissar Drurary who was at the rear and had eyes-on. The Commissar shook his head. The Major was down now, too. The surviving Hellhound advanced and though Khodkievich dove to the ground it was not enough to protect him.

***

Lord Inquisitor Soulis opened his eyes. He was again surrounded my medicae servitors and Sisters Hospitaller in a makeshift field hospital. The crusade was not going well. Two battles -- both ridiculous situations, easily avoided, that led to Imperial fighting Imperial, while he yet to come to grips with the true enemy. He grit his teeth and sat up. A Hospitaller sister tried to tell him to lay back down, but he angrily brushed her hands away. Too forcefully. He closed his eyes and breathed, but remained sitting up.

"My apologies, sister," he said quietly. "I let my frustrations get the better of me."

He could afford such a concession here, among his most trusted attendance in his most inner sanctum.

"My lord need not apologise for anything," she whispered.

"Very well. Send Brother Marcellus in, I trust he is nearby?"

"Of course, my lord. He has not left your side while you recovered. He only just left at our insistence."

Soulis' trusted interrogator and adopted son who had followed him onto battlefields and courtrooms across the galaxy entered the room within five minutes.

"Colonel von Paskberg," the Lord Inquisitor said. "Do we know where he is?"

"Indeed, father," he said, a slight smile touching his lips. "Though his men made off with several supply crates, they were too fearful to approach our Land Raider and not only were we able to secure the most important objective, our position being near his wrecked tank, we also found him in the wreckage. The medicae servitors have been successful in keeping him alive."

"Excellent, you've done well as always, Marcellus. Bring some coffee and we will plan his inquisition."

***

Tactical Review and Notes:

Good gravy that was a bloody battle -- but of course it always is when you get Guard-on-Guard action going.

This was the one and only battle of the tournament that was not kill points, ironically, and had it been, I would have won because although he mauled me pretty good, I still had my very expensive Henchman squad, the Demolisher, and the Hydra unscathed plus the Grenadiers though reduced were far enough away to deny that KP. Whereas I had killed a lot of troops and tanks. Problem was, using the new Astra Militarum Codex and the cheap (too cheap in my opinion) veterans, he just had a lot to keep throwing at me (good for me if KP, not so good in this mission).

The victory condition was, instead, whoever held more supply crates at the end of the mission won. Nearly all battle I held three of the supply crates and he held none, but at the bottom of turn 4 he quickly snatched up two, and denied me two of my crates by blasting the CCS with the Russ and the PCS with the Hellhound. I did quite well on secondaries, however, so although it was a solid win for him it wasn't as lopsided as game one. Initial VP were 9 to 1 since he held more crates than me (if we both had the same number it would have been 5 VP each).

Victory Points were 9 to 6 -- I received +2 bonus VP for securing my Forlorn Hope objective which the Land Raider/Henchmen held, +1 for having a crate within my deployment zone (the CCS had dragged theirs in there), +1 for First Blood (Death Riders smoking his heavy mortars like a cheap cigar), and +1 for having scoring/super-scoring units in more table quarters than he (Astronomi-con had a house rule that Inquisitorial Henchmen are "Objective Secured"). So actually almost a draw on the strength of secondaries.

This one was a real nail-biter, coming right down to the very end. It was an excellent choice on the part of my opponent to choose to go second -- allowing him to make the last-minute dash for supply crates. Writing the batrep I think I made some mistakes yet his going second also allowed him to alpha strike me with every new unit that arrived on the board plus he rolled very well for the special rule for this table where reserves could arrive on your own table edge, left, right, or opponent's table edge. All my stuff arrived on my own edge except the Death Riders (if you're wondering how they charged turn two, its because we were allowed to roll for reserves on a 5+ starting turn 1 since we could only deploy a single troop and a single HQ).

As with the first battle, this one was a ton of fun and against a very nicely painted Kreig army -- although I was a bit miffed with the fact that he used DKoK Grenadiers to represent regular flak armour veterans, I didn't dock him any sportsmanship because he was otherwise a great sport, even selecting =][= as his preferred enemy for fluff because of an ongoing series he has with a friend who plays an inquisitor.

I was confirmed in my opinion of game 1 on the inefficiency of 10-man deep-striking Scions as these guys were wasted by either a heavy flamer or a Hellhound right after arriving as well (I forgot how they died so left it out of the report). The platoon squads with their krak grenades were unbelievable on the other hand -- one squad accounted for Paskunisher and his Execitioner wingman, while the second took down a Hellhound and might have prevented that third Russ from nuking my CCS if I had not rolled really bad for charge. In my view Grenadiers > veterans as Golunski's squad PWNed the veterans near them, but were then stranded without their ride too far away from a supply crate to grab one.

On the whole, I think his ability to alpha strike me told the story on this battle. That and my inability to make good use of the very expensive henchmen squad. With the Land Raider hitting but faiing to penetrate anything with its lascannons, this was basically 1000 pts of me vs. 1500 points of him. So from that perspective I did pretty darn good. But it also had me thinking that that henchman squad was too many eggs in one basket for a 1500 pt tournament.

[WarriorFish]

I agree with your closing thoughts, so there's plenty for you to ponder on for next time :) Keep the battle reports coming, it's always a riveting read! :D

[scatmandoo]

I agree with your thoughts from the report and the musings from your other games. Well written report though. And keep them coming which reminds me that I have to do mine still.

[Nicodemus Doloroso]

Thanks, scatmandoo, glad you liked it. But it seems that cheesy apocalypse list building is still getting a lot more love than my batreps, so I'm hoping the next report might pique peoples' interest a little more, as I finally got to face CHAOS! Here's a little teaser pic ...

[scatmandoo]

Awesome, that looks like an interesting story, though whete is soulis and his warband? Surely a job for them? ?

[WarriorFish]

Soulis can't be everywhere, so he was probably off chopping up some traitors on the other side of the board :P

[Nicodemus Doloroso]

You'll just have to wait and see but I will say WarriorFish is pretty close ...

 

I'll try to get the batrep up tonight.

[librisrouge]

See, that is what the Krieg are for, stabbing Chaos Marines in the neck with bayonets.

 

I look forward to the next report.

[Nicodemus Doloroso]

Sorry comrades no batrep tonight -- I decided to finish assembling my Valkyrie and it took longer than expected!

 

I did some painting too, however, which I'll post in my Astro 2015 PLOG thread.

[WarriorFish]

Hmm... acceptable. We'll let you off just this once :P

[Nicodemus Doloroso]

ASTRONOMI-CON 2014 BATTLE 3: "BATTLE AT THE FARM" VERSUS CHAOS SPACE MARINES

The third battle alone was worth the price of admission as I finally got to face the great enemy. This was a very interesting scenario revolving around a farmstead in one corner of the board, consisting of some farm building surrounded by a hedge (which we agreed gave 6+ cover) and surrounded by crop fields and some hills and forests making for a tricky approach. But the attacker was allowed to make a number of infitration-style moves to represent troops sneaking up on the farm. These could only be infantry or beast models. A small force of sentries was placed in the farm and each time an infiltration move was made (a rough terrain roll determined how far each unit went), they rolled to see if they detected the approaching troops on a 5+. The attacker had the alternate option of null deploying and getting the first turn. I chose to try to sneak my platoon and dismounted grenadiers in close. Battle was against a guy named David who, despite all my opponents being really cool, was a cut above the rest. Totally, totally awesome guy. I wish he lived near me but alas he was an out of towner from the opposite direction as me.

Armies:

Chaos Space Marines

Sorcerer (don't know what he had for wargear or powers because I killed him dead too fast )

Daemon Prince (again, not sure what he had other than that he could fly)

10 Chaos Space Marines with Mark of Khorne, Chaos Icon, Rhino with Havoc missile-launcher

9 Chaos Space Marines with plasmagun, Rhino with Havoc missile-launcher

Chaos Spawn

Heldrake w/ AP3 Flamer

Defiler w/ Battle Cannon

4x Obliterators

LORD INQUISITOR SOULIS' CRUSADE COHORT DEMEDA

Lord Inquisitor Soulis (Ordo Hereticus Inquisitor) w/ power armour, power sword, 3x servo skulls

Inquisitorial Warband - x2 crusader, 2x Death Cult Assassin, 1x Arco Flagellant, 2x Acolytes, Munitorum Priest, Land Raider

DKoK Company Command Squad w/ power sword

Militarum Tempestus Commissar

Hydra

Lt. Khodkievich's Platoon - DKoK PCS w/ 2x Flamer, Platoon standard, power sword; PIS w/ metlagun; PIS w/ Flamer

SLt. Golunski's Grenadiers - 2x meltagun, heavy flamer, Storm Chimera

Inquisitorial Storm Troopers - Scions (9) w/ 2x plasmagun

8 Death Riders

Demolisher

DEPLOYMENT

At last, they had come to grips with the great enemy of the Imperium. At last, his troops could sink their bayonets into traitor's hearts rather than foolish proud tank commanders or beguiled sororitas. At last, some taste retribution for the sack of Valka could be had. It would be but a sip, to be sure, but like a thimbleful of aperatif before a feast, it promised much more and Lord Inquisitor Soulis knew that the Crusade -- which to this point had progressed in fits and starts -- was entering into its next phase.

His mystics had determined by the disturbances in the warp, that the vile sorcerer Khorliss and his coven had made their nest in this farm. From the outside so unassuming, but to the Eye that Could See, full of malevolence and blasphemy. Soulis was no witch, but yet he could sense the horror that nature herself felt at the unholy rites being performed across the placid fields of wheat. The air had a bitter, acrid tang, and the hairs on his body all stood on end with the charge in the air. For the sorcerer was attempting to summon a daemon from the warp. Time was of the essence, yet Soulis hoped to take them by surprise. Located amidst fields as it was, the approach would be dangerous, and though his men were more than willing to sell their lives dearly in the service of the Emperor, yet did Soulis wish to avoid being bogged down in a hideous advance under fire. If Major Zaiyontz cold get his men in close, they could secure a position before Soulis launched his main armoured assault.

To the right flank of the farm, then, Major Zaiyontz led First Platoon under Lt. Khodkiewicz and the Grenadiers under S/Lt. Golunski, dismounted for the task, through the forested hills on that side of the farm. Behind the hedges surrounding the barns, Soulis cold see through his magnoculars the hideous shapes of two squads of Chaos Space Marines walking sentry behind the hedges and behind the buildings, the a huge metallic shape loomed, a Defiler ...

TURN ONE

The men of first platoon moved in complete silence, the discipline of the Valkan soldier on display in a way it normally was not in the service of Lord Inquisitor Soulis. Lt. Khokievich, using hand signals only, gestured for his men to move over and between the hillocks that stood between them and the farm. Cautiously they moved amidst loose rocks and fallen pine branches. To their right, he could see the Grenadiers, even more impressively in their heavy armour, moving noiselessly. Khodkievich crested the hill and could make out hulking, black armoured forms with grotesque horns and spikes. His mouth went dry, but no alarm had been raised. They were halfway there, now, only a little further -- but no, though they made scarcely a sound the superhuman senses of the marines must have heard something, for they howled with rage and thundered about clearly alerted (he rolled 5+ on my second attempt to move, but I did gain about 5-6").

The air was torn asunder by the scream of incoming ordinance. It landed directly amidst the Grenadiers, their armour of no use against the High Explosive Round, though they continued forward without flinching. Khodkievich drew his power sword and swore to avenge them and all those who'd fallen in the defence of home.

"Forwards, for the Emperor!" he bellowed.

"Ah well, it would have been rather dull if we'd been able to just saunter up to them and slit their throat before they knew we were here, I shouldn't wonder," Commissar Durary said casually.

TURN TWO

The subtle approach had not worked as well as Lord Inquisitor Soulis had hoped. There was nothing now for it, but to charge ahead. He ordered the driver ahead at top speed and the Land Raider raced ahead, crushing a small outbuilding under its tracks. With a flash of light, Inquisitorial Storm Troopers appeared to the left of the traitors, nearly in their midst, and with blazing plasma and hotshot lasgun scythed down a half-dozen.

To his right, the Grenadiers' chimera now stormed forward as well, while Khodkievich's men swarmed over the hill and fowards. Soulis keyed the company vox and could here Major Zaiyontz giving curt, crisp orders exhorting the platoon and remaining Grenadiers to advance "Without Mercy" [order]. The Demolisher roared to Soulis' rear-right and several of the heretics vanished in a gout of flame and fying debris. They will soon know our wrath, Soulis thought, his mouth shaping a tight smile.

The traitors advanced, then charged towards the advance squad of Khodkievich's platoon. "Let them come!" He shouted encouragingly to the men. "Hack on! For the Emperor!"

The men braced themselves and met the heretics with ready bayonets. Thought dwarfed by the metal clad monsters, they gave not and inch, hacking and slashing at the weak points in the space marine armour. But one of their number fell, while his fellows dragged down one of the giants, tore his horned helmet from his head, and bashed his skull in with rifle butts and entrenching tools.

The Inquisitorial Storm troopers faired not nearly so well, and Lord Inquisitor Soulis watched with a mingling of horror and rising fury as they were torn asunder by the sorcerer's vile powers, and the survivors butchered by the three space marines who had survived the Storm Trooper's barrage. The Defiler, hiding cowardly behind the buildings out of sight of the Land Raider's lascannons, belched again and radio contact with the Grenadiers was lost.

TURN THREE

"Let none survive! Destroy the witch!" Lord Inquisitor Soulis roared as the assault ramp slammed down. His Crimson Guard stormed out ahead of him. The Death Kommandos silently twirled their blades, while Redeemer Karlist bellowed the war hymns. They washed over Soulis like waves of flame, kindling his righteous anger the further. Ignoring the enemy's snap shots the warband slammed into the Sorcerer and his retinue.

"Lapdog of the corpse-emperor," The sorcerer beckoned in a sickly sweet voice. "Face me, blade-to-blade, if you dare."

Soulis was a veteran of too many battles to allow himself to be drawn in by such a 'challenge'. This blasphemous creature deserved not the honour of single combat, and he would not allow himself to fall for such treachery. He knew his own skill, and though in bygone days he had single-handedly sent whole squads of marines back to the warp, yet he knew engaging in single combat with sorcerer bore more risk than reward.

"You'll receive no such respect, abomination!" Soulis spat. "Witch and traitor, you deserve only to die like the animal you are!"

With that, the warband fell upon the space marines. Soulis gave the activation phrase to the arco-flagellant then contemptuously stopped his charge and watched the Death Kommandos' whirling power swords cut through the marines' armour like so much tissue paper and scatter their foetid entrails amidst the dust before they could even swing their bolters. The sorcerer fell along with the rest, his soul dragged back to the warp with a scream.

Across the battlefield, Lt. Khodkievich surged forward, exhorting his men to attack. Commissar Drurary, too, was now if fine form, shouting to the men: "Once more, unto the breach, dear friends, once more!"

The headquarters squad and the second platoon squad descended upon the marines. Khodkievich looked up and his rage burned the hotter, seeing thrice-cursed mark of Khorne upon the banner pole. "Avenge Valkava Hive! No Mercy!"

Their minds filled with images of the beat of their beloved home planet by the World Eaters, the Valkavans fell upon the heretics, heedless that the objective observer would exclaim that they should be butchered by the ancient supermen. They clubbed and bit and hacked and slashed and marine after marine fell until, to a man, they littered the ground, and their bodies outnumbered those of the guardsmen.

"In the common parlance of the underhive of Praetoria," Commissar Drurary said, "we 'owned' those heretics, if you don't mind my saying so, young master Khodkiewich."

As Soulis' warband consolidated their position, the Chaos reinforcements now began to arrive, but piecemeal. It was well done, indeed, that the foul witch had been destroyed quickly. The air was rent by the thundering wings of a hideous warp-beast and flying vehicle welded together. It screamed over the battlefield and unleished baleful flames upon the Rough Riders following the Land Raider. Many were laid low, but stolidly the squad kept up its pace moving forward.

A horror of incomprehensible evil, such that the very sight of it clawed at even Soulis' hardened Inquisitor's mind burst forth onto the battle field, charging and raging towards his squad, while another Rhino appeared and the full fury of the Chaos army vented itself on Soulis' squad. His Crimson Guardsmen's storm shields absorbed the lion's share of the fire, yet even so only the Inquisitor, Redeemer Karlist, one Guardsman and the Arco-Flagellant remained.

TURN FOUR

The platoon moved further into the farm, consolidating their position, but unable to get close enough to the Defiler or rhinos to use their weapons. The Demolisher, lacking a better target, took a desultory shot at the Rhino nearest Soulis but missed. In the distance, Soulis could hear the Hydra autocannons banging away. The Heldrake screamed in pain but did not fall (two hull points)

"Press the attack, destroy the abomination!" Soulis growled.

The Rough Riders dashed forward, leaping over the hedge and lowering their lances in one fluid movement, as Soulis and his remaining warband charged into the Chaos Spawn. He was unable to strike, however, as the explosive-tipped lances annihilated the creature in a spray of putrid blood and warp goo. He had perhaps overestimated the creature, yet one never knew what such abominable blasphemies against nature were capable of. He was just as glad to have no opportunity to learn.

The farm was secure, but for the enemy vehicles that shifted about, avoiding contact with his men. Yet it had seemed too easy; Soulis felt dread creeping into his very gut and he broke out in gooseflesh as the barrier between reality and the Warp was ripped open. Through this emerged a being terrible to behold and Soulis gripped his power sword with apprehension. The Daemon Prince had arrived despite killing the sorcerer. Next he knew, hideous Obliterators had appeared as well, and the Land Raider had had a great smoking gash torn in its side by their meltaguns. He prepared to charge ...

***

Tactical Review and Notes:

We'd run out of time, and the game ended there at the end of turn 4, which was likely a good thing since I really don't think Inquisitor Soulis, a Crusader, and Arco-Flagellant, and a priest could have handled that Daemon Prince (although I've never faced one, I assume they are quite savage in hand-to-hand combat). The Death Riders, having used-up their lances on the Chaos Spawn, would not have been able to help much I expect.

Maybe I could have moved them enough to get a lucky shot with the Demolisher (who had a rather lacklustre game -- my opponent did a good job of denying it targets). The Defiler would not have been easy to kill either. First Platoon was largely unscathed, but they only had one meltagun between them and a bunch of Krak Grenades but that would have been ugly, real ugly. So it was probably for the best.

The game was a draw, which was a bit of a draw, because despite how ugly a turn 5 may have been, it had felt like a solid Imperial victory up to that point, perhaps mostly due to his horrific reserves roles (note that his heldrake and rhinos only appeared on turn 3, and the daemon prince and obliterators on turn 4 -- the mission rules required us to reserve everything except one HQ choice and two troop choices, plus one heavy for the defender). On the other hand his bad reserves roles benefitted him since I lacked targets a lot of the time, especially at the top of turn four where most of my army just milled around without much to do.

Once again, I would have been way better off with a 5-man melta Scion squad or, even better, two of them, rather than the 9-man plasma squad. They did whittle down the sorcerer's squad but in hindsight that was a dumb use for them since Soilis and company could have handled even the full enchelada I'm sure. They handled the weakened squad while barely breaking a sweat. Once again the platoon were studs taking on a 10-man squad of Khorne-marked Chaos Marines and beating the snot out of them. The Grenadiers drew a lot of respect and fire and died without doing anything. In restrospect I would have been wiser to null-deploy, give him first turn, and charge everything from the long board edge. Although that was wide open, he would not have been able to bring much fire to bear and I would have overwhelmed him.

At the end of the day it was just awesome to be able to charge and beat-down in hand-to-hand combat Chaos Marines. This is what my list was built for.

I'd like input from those with more experience -- are Chaos Spawn not as tough as they look? Or was I right to spend the Death Riders' lances on them?

Interesting game. I may add more thoughts tomorrow.

[scatmandoo]

Interesting game and a great wrote up as usual. Your list seems solid and I agree with your conclusions about the smaller scion squads. Could you get another command one for more orders possibly?

 

I think the Land raider proved invaluable again, though would an alternative have worked better?

[WarriorFish]

Once more unto the breach indeed! :D I agree on the different deployment, but Soulis would have wanted to get to grips with the great enemy sooner ;) It feels like your list could do with more numbers spread around though, especially on the Scions who strike in often on a suicide mission.

[JaM_TW]

Nice writeup. :)

[Nicodemus Doloroso]

Thanks for reading, and for the compliments gents -- glad you enjoyed it. This one was a lot of fun to write-up just remembering all those glorious charges.

 

I should add that this was a 3rd edition-style victory point mission, where you added up how many points worth of stuff you killed, compare it to what the other guy killed, and if the differential was more than 150 pts it was a victory for one or the other. We were within 150 pts, although if he hadn't rolled lights-out on the obliterators' scatter and melta hits, the 250pts of Land Raider would have made all the difference. Hence my concern over the LR being too many eggs in one basket. But it did its job. Again, he was benefitted in this in that some of his most expensive stuff (Daemon Prince and Obliterators) did not arrive until the bottom of turn 4 meaning I had no chance to even touch them. So while he was denied their use, they were also sheltered. I believe Obliterators have 2+ save which this list lacks ways to deal with.

 

This one should have been a win if I played it a bit smarter. I should have sent the Scions after the Defiler I think, kept the Grenadiers in their Chimera (which got into the farm totally unscathed), and maybe saved the Death Riders to send after the Daemon Prince (I totally overestimated the Chaos Spawn, I'm pretty sure that Soulis' warband could have smacked it down alone since four charging Death Riders totally overkilled it).

 

@WarriorFish -- I think you're right about the Land Raider. As I revisit these battles again writing up the battle reports, although its lascannons did not hit anything on the first shot all tournament (always needed the twin-linked re-roll) and did not damage a single vehicle all tournament either, it was key to getting Soulis and Company where they needed to be when they needed to be there. A turn wasted getting out of their chimera and milling about for a turn in this battle would have given the Sorcerer time to escape or do more damage (if memory serves he almost wiped the Scions with a good Soul Scream roll and then bolters and plasma did the rest to that squad). So I am thinking I will find a way to keep it in my Inquisition/Scion list.

 

Again, based on lessons learned, as I replay this mission and others in my mind positing the Inq/Scion army I'm building, I think that despite the fact that Scions "suck" (according to the interwebs) that list can do very well. It will get hosed on composition unfortunately (too many points on dedicated transports, too few points -- i.e. none -- on heavy support), but so be it, it will be fun and unexpected.

[scatmandoo]

Maybe the landraider to save points and focus on a role should be a Redeemer though a crusader with psy ammo would work well.

 

What do the scion book count as heavy support as I have no idea of their entries?

[Nicodemus Doloroso]

Scions have no heavy support options. Nor any Elites. Inquisition have only HQ and elite choices.

 

So for Astronomi-con, where their army composition tries to force you to take a balance of everything (you take penalties for more than 300 pts or two force org choices in any slot save troops, and additional penalties for more than 150 pts of dedicated transports) I'm going to get hammered on comp with any Inquisition/Scion force but so be it -- I'm not expecting to rank even in the top 10 anyway and only those gunning for the top spots really need to worry about comp as it only accounts for 20 points out of 300.

[scatmandoo]

Ah I see. Maybe worth making a case to the organisers that you are hung by your codex due to lack of options. Worst they can say is no?

 

Apart from that are forgeworld allowed? If so are anything they can offer a option?

[Nicodemus Doloroso]

Ah I see. Maybe worth making a case to the organisers that you are hung by your codex due to lack of options. Worst they can say is no?

 

Apart from that are forgeworld allowed? If so are anything they can offer a option?

 

The only problem is that unless they made a codex-specific exception for Militarum Tempestus, changing the composition system could lead to more sick armies. They had composition free tournaments for a few years and didn't like what they were seeing whereas the return to comp seems to have calmed-down the power gaming so I'm cool with it. As I said, I'm not too upset if I get bad comp because I won't be contesting any of the top stops anyway.