Redtoof's AdMech battles

[Redtoof]

Edit: my images were lost on the noosphere, and to better contain data in future I created a blog. It can be found here: https://redtoof.blogspot.co.uk/

 

Hello

 

I decided I was going to try and do more battle reports in 8th edition. My bat reps are fairly lazy, and the pics are from an iPad so they aren't great. But hopefully they are informative and/or entertaining. I'm going to plonk my Mechanicus battles in here, there probably won't be that many of them, but there will be at least one, because here it is...

 

 

My regular opponent wanted to try out a narrative mission, so we picked Blitz, which involves the attacker trying to get units into the defender's fortified deployment zone. The defender just has to kill stuff. The attacker gets to recycle units, while the defender has to split their deployment between two zones, one 18 inches from a short board edge, the other 18 from that, and must use hidden deployment. There are also some fun bonus stratagems.

 

 

This is my army. It is just under 1500 points, came out at 73 power. (2x Dominus, rangers, breachers, destroyers, fist robots, phosphor robots, 2x data smith and a neutron onagar.) My opponent took 1500 of chaos marines, consisting of a prince, Lucius, 2x fully kitted out noise marine squads, 2x double butcher cannon contemptors, cultists and spawn.

 

 

Deployment. I used command points to deploy some decoy markers, which my opponent ignored by shoving everything on one flank. I also used a command point to dig in my destroyers on the left building to give them an improved armour save until they moved.

 

 

My opponent launched an artillery bombardment, using a command point to hit my destroyers on a 4+. I had the option of going to ground with them to turn D6 mortal wounds into d3. I did, reasoning I'd just spent command points on giving them a better save that they wouldn't get from this, and he promptly rolled a 1. So that's command points and a unit's shooting for a turn wasted. Damn.

 

 

Attacker goes first. My Skitarii had the unenviable role of 'only unit in range of 14 sonic blasters'. The spawn also Warp timed closer than I'd like. I used a command point to activate a minefield, killing one of them. The breachers took a battering from butcher cannons.

 

 

I moved a lot of units into firing positions. Sadly the triple phosphor robots on the right flank had to advance to be able to see anything. A lot of shooting on the spawn whittled them down a bit, but still 2 left...

 

 

Spawn and Warp timing Prince get up in my face. I use a command point to activate a minefield on the prince, in 1 in 6 parrellel universes offshooting from this point the prince died a hilarious death, but not this one. The noise marines blasted one of my fist bots apart, and wounded the other. Butcher cannons and/or blastmasters finished the breachers. Prince and spawn charged my destroyers and second dominus. As you can see, they whiffed somewhat.

 

 

Robots in position. Datasmith changes the tapes and they go into the ironically named Protector Protocols.

 

 

Last Kastelan on the left flank switches to Conqueror Protocols and goes to conquer the Prince. The Dominus and the destroyers disengage. The spawn get finished off, and the warlord Dominus gets a double 6 on his wounds against the prince with the volkite blaster. CHOOM!

 

 

The Prince gets smashed. I think you can see here two empty spaces where a unit of noise marines and a unit of cultists were 'Protected'.

 

 

The Emperor's Children advance, this turn their shooting was less effective. They pinged off a few wounds that were repaired. In response my punchy robot goes to finish the single survivor of the 'protected' noise marines, which, as you can see, he did.

 

 

You might also notice one of the contemptors is gone. I very much enjoyed the Neutron Laser. At this point things are looking pretty good for me.

 

 

The reinforcements start pouring in. More spawn, another prince, more Blastmasters and Butcher cannons...

 

 

He used a couple of command points to deploy the spawn 18 inches on, which allowed them to get this close already. The noise marines get ready to charge a pair of priests, while the robot and the destroyers are finished.

 

 

Noise marines make it in, but even generating extra attacks on 5s and 6s, they fail to do much more than a few scratches (which are promptly repaired in my turn.)

 

 

Things get bad pretty quickly. Shooting from the new contemptor and noise marines finish off the Onagar and the other Kastelans. The new Prince Warp times himself right up close. Lucius and the Spawn get in. Lucius generates 10 hits from 7 attacks to kill the datasmith faster than he can calculate. The Dominus survives as the spawn can't quite reach him. He disengages away from my lines, hoping to draw the noise marines away from the inner deployment zone and bonus points.

 

 

The over stimulated emperor's children take the bait and charge the Dominus, along with Lucius and the spawn. He does not survive. At this point I've only got my warlord Dominus and a single datasmith remaining. I've killed 5 units, and he has 6 in the scoring zone. There is a 1 wound contemptor included in that. I attempt to CHOOM it off the table.

 

 

I fail. The warlord gets eaten by a daemon prince for his efforts. My one remaining datasmith calculates that if he can kill the prince I will win the game. He fails to wound with the gamma pistol, and bravely recalculates the odds of success as being 0, so opts not to charge into certain death.

 

The game ends in defeat for the forces of Ryza. 5-6. Super close, fun game. Instead of listing what worked and what didn't, instead I will list the things my opponent at one point claimed were OP.

 

-Volkite Blaster

-Neutron Laser

-Kastelans of all forms.

-Dominus repairing himself

-Dominus repairing Onagar

-Dominus repairing himself and nearby Datasmith while fighting in hand to hand combat. I reasoned he probably has an extra brain for that.

-Lucius the Eternal fighting Imperial Characters. Ouch.

 

In the end we decided it was all pretty much balanced, I think this was the closest game of 8th we've had yet, and we remembered most of our rules within 30 mins of when they were relevant.

[Vel'Cona]

Excellent batrep!  The play-by-play is appreciated and I enjoyed seeing a bit of back-and-forth in the battle.  It's also nice to see fully painted armies, and I daresay pretty well at that!

 

Do you feel that Destroyers are still as powerful this edition as last?  How about the Skitarii?

[Redtoof]

Excellent batrep!  The play-by-play is appreciated and I enjoyed seeing a bit of back-and-forth in the battle.  It's also nice to see fully painted armies, and I daresay pretty well at that!

 

Do you feel that Destroyers are still as powerful this edition as last?  How about the Skitarii?

Thanks :)

 

The destroyers didn't get to shoot much, but when they did it wasn't super effective. They were tougher than before though. They will need more testing. The Skitarii Rangers died before firing a shot, so again, hard to judge.

[Redtoof]

New codex out just in time for a couple of games today. I took 1000 points of my Ryza army to play a double game alongside regular opponent John, but our opponents were late so we played a quick game between each other first.

 

John was playing necrons. He had a Lord, a Cryptek, 10 Triarch Pretorians (had to go to GW website to work out what they were called - the are tough jump infantry), 20 warriors and 3 units of scarabs. I had a Battalion featuring 2 Domini (dominuses? Dominoes?), grav destroyers, 2x5 rangers, datasmith, neutron onagar and 2 phosphor robots. The Mission was just 'kill stuff'. For the lols I took the Ryza warlord trait and relic, giving my warlord Dominus a S6 D3 axe and a super powered volkite gun.

 

 

 

Deployment. Necrons line up, Pretorians behind a building. I try to screen with skitarii, leaving my robots too close, forgetting they have 36 inch range (I've not played these guys for a while...).

 

 

After Necron first turn. Pretorians still hiding, mostly, while scarabs get into position to be annoying.

 

 

After my first turn. As you can see I decided the scarabs must die. I think I forgot canticles (a common theme, I think I only actually got to use them for one turn all day). And I set my robots onto 'Protector' protocols for next turn.

 

 

Pretorians kill off the skitarii shielding the robots, and promptly consolidate into them. I realise changing protocols was stupid, and use a command point to weld the Aegis protocols back in place so they can actually move out of combat.

 

 

Command point well spent as I shoot the unit down to 1 model on 1 wound. Datasmith charges in but whiffs with his power fist. (I think I may have missed a reroll 1 to wound here).

 

 

Omnissiah damn these Necrons!

 

 

Eventually I deal with the Pretorians, but the warriors have advanced to rapid fire range. They have killed all my skitarii and reduced the kataphrons to 1 model, cowering being a tree in this shot.

 

 

The Necrons and the Lord bounce of my robots who disengage again. I sneak the Onagar into position where the Lord is the closest target, and Neutron laser his face off. The rest of the army shoots the warriors and most of them charge in, killing plenty. (The Onagar even stood on one of them). At this point our opponents for the double game have arrived so John concedes. I'm pretty happy with how the ad mech went in this game. Didn't get much mileage out of new stuff, but the ability to override the Kastellan protocols/fix my stupid mistake was huge. Also the Weapon XCIX relic was pretty nice.

[Redtoof]

Game 2. I team up with John's necrons, using the same lists, vs Colin and Ken, playing Word Bearers and Night Lords respectively. They rock up with a pretty scary looking list which they apparently threw together at work one day. (If you've read my Tyranid battle reps you'll know this doesn't work well when I do it!).

 

Colin was rocking 2 winged princes, 5 chosen with combi flamers in a rhino, a maulerfiend and 3 hilariously cheap giant spawn. Oh, and a single regular spawn for luck. Ken had another winged prince, 2 units of 10 cultists and 3 units of Terminators. We played contact lost with quarters deployment.

 

 

Mid way through the first movement phase. They went first and moved up with everything, apart from cultists on the back objectives. The Terminators all dropped in on the first turn as well. Their shooting reduced one of my ranger squads to 1 lone skitarii, but he passed his morale and stuck around to deny first blood.

 

 

We shuffled around, then started shooting. With no time to lose I burnt 3 command points to lock my Kastellans into the Protector Protocols, and activate the elimination volley. Grav destroyers are closest to that prince on the ruin, they fire and knock him down to 1 wound (Colin's 5+ saves were on point tonight), Robots split fire on the two front giant spawn. Failing to kill either (again with good saves). The Onagar finished one of the spawn while the Pretorians charge the second to kill it off. We get first blood and an objective that the Onagar is sat on.

 

 

In their turn they get Terminators, Maulerfiend and the last giant spawn into the Pretorians, while the two princes on the flank both get charges off. The one wound prince goes into a unit of scarabs. We use command points to interject, and John manages a grand total of 1 wound, which is saved, the scarabs are left with one base. The khorne prince charges my destroyers, and thanks to his 3 damage sword, kills them all.

 

 

In the big central melee everyone rolls poorly leaving the Pretorians standing, having killed off a couple of Terminators. I think the giant spawn starts gaining wounds here. It is very annoying.

 

 

The Pretorians fly away to the ruin, safe from the spawn and Fiend. I get revenge on the prince that killed the destroyers, getting slay the warlord. However I was disappointed not to also have some shots at the on wound prince. Necron shooting plus the 99 gun kill off most of a Terminator squad, saved from total destruction by a Night Lords stratagem giving us -1 to hit. At this point I think we are still ahead on points, although a Terminator squad is about to defend an objective on the building.

 

 

The Warriors charge in a big line to tie stuff up. This sadly does not hold them up for too long, as the Terminators, spawn and mauler pile in after.

 

 

The one wound prince goes up to face the Pretorians. He charges in, surviving overwatch, then knocks down 5 out of the 6. The last Pretorian finally fells it in response.

 

 

The warriors are slowly ground down.

 

 

We throw our warlords in to try and hold them back longer. The Necron Lord takes out the Mauler (previously dropped low by my Onagar and robots) which explodes and kills him, along with a terminator, 3 chosen and wounding the spawn and my dominus. In spite of my field-testing axe and my Ryza dogma, the Dominus is killed by the spawn, which ends the combat on more wounds than it started the game with. Grumble grumble.

 

 

With the roadblock gone, the Nightlords sweep into our deployment zone and kill the robots and the Onagar. Thanks to a brave datasmith and an exploding kastellan, the prince is dropped to 2 wounds, but we have little left to capitalise. At this point the chaos forces have been picking up plenty of objectives along the way.

 

 

The Pretorians survive, and repair most of their number. They kill off one of the cultist squads, before charging this one on an objective. With 6 left, after having taken some fire from rangers, the Pretorians wouldn't need to do too much to shift them off the objective and claim a point. They killed a single cultists, who I can only assume died laughing.

 

 

My last remaining models bravely run away from the giant spawn. The game ends. We got a semi-respectable 6 points out of it. The chaos forces had just a couple more. Oh alright, a lot more, 17.

 

Some lessons:

-John's dice were baaaad. He was rolling purple dice so obviously he was being punished by Slaanesh for not playing his Emperor's Children. (Why I use orange and red dice with the Ad Mech!)

-Giant Spawn are silly cheap. 75 points for 10 wounds, invulnerable save, loads of attacks, pretty quick and the ability to just keep getting wounds back is a right pain. If that wasn't enough, I was reliably informed forgeworld FAQed them to also get the abilities of their associated God, giving the tzeentch one a 4+ invulnerable and the nurgle one Disgustingly Resilient. Thanks Forgeworld!

-Onagar and Kastellans are pretty great. But we knew that.

-5 man skitarii units in cover can be surprisingly tough to shift.

-The Ryza relic is pretty good. It's kind of like a short ranged autocannon with an extra shot and a chance at mortal wounds. I went into this thinking I was picking a dumb choice just to say I'd tried it, but I think I'd pick it again.

-The Ryza warlord trait is not so great on the axe. Not enough attacks to really make it worth it, and you don't really want to charge in your Dominus unless things get desperate. Though I was tempted to have a damage 2 macrostubber.

-Barely used the dogma, but didn't have any melee units, so can't really comment, other than I'd have liked something better.

-It's surprising how few of the canticles are useful if you are facing a melee army without your own melee units.

 

Overall, had fun, enjoyed playing the army, I think we definitely have some nice new options. Will be looking to sneak more command points into my future larger lists.*Goes to eBay to look for engineseers and skitarii*.

[Yoda79]

Like your reports keep em coming . But your lists need improvng. No need to play ryza just because you are yellow. Dont need destroyers when you surelly got more robots. And some melee unit like dragoons cn help you out especially if teamed with 5 vanguards. Some thoughts.

 

Datasmiths. Neverntake more than 0-1 of them? If know you gonna play in an open field and got only range robots you can use gem to swtich protocol. If you gor both melee and range robots place one datasmith to change range one forst round the move him with melee robots. Whatever the case no more than one. 52 points is a full troop pick.

[Redtoof]

Like your reports keep em coming . But your lists need improvng. No need to play ryza just because you are yellow. Dont need destroyers when you surelly got more robots. And some melee unit like dragoons cn help you out especially if teamed with 5 vanguards. Some thoughts.

Datasmiths. Neverntake more than 0-1 of them? If know you gonna play in an open field and got only range robots you can use gem to swtich protocol. If you gor both melee and range robots place one datasmith to change range one forst round the move him with melee robots. Whatever the case no more than one. 52 points is a full troop pick.

Thanks for the compliment/advice. I'll probably keep playing Ryza though, Even though they are not the best (possibly the worst) It still feels wrong to me to play them off scheme. Also I still feel destroyers are good, especially alongside the robots for the elimination Volley stratagem. It was only good luck that save the prince from them in the second game. Definitely fancy some dragoons at some point though, they do look cool.

 

I only had one datasmith in these lists, but I might consider making the second model I have into an enginseer for command points purposes.

[Redtoof]

Another Ad Mech battle report. This time the forces of Ryza once again face off against the Necrons. We both were using a few proxies for this one, so not quite wysiwyg. Most notably I borrowed a Knight, which is definitely not a Chaos one, and John used his annihilation barges as Tesseract Arcs from forgeworld. We played Tactical Escalation.

 

My list, roughly: 2 Dominuses / Domini, 1 Enginseer, 1 Datasmith, 3 plasma destroyers, 3 arc breachers, 10 rangers with arc rifles, 2 Kastellans with all guns, 2 kastellans with fists, 1 neutron Onagar and a totally not a renegade Kight Crusader (thermal cannon, avenger gatling and stormspear rockets.)

 

Necrons had: Named Lord guy (I think Anrakyr the Traveller?), Illuminator spider legs, Cryptek, 2 units of 20 warriors, 2 units of scarabs, tomb Spyder, 2 Tesseract Arcs, 1 Tomb Centipede, 1 Sentry Pylon.

 

 

Deployment. I finished first and got to go first. John used a command point to try to seize, but didn't. I used the Knight of the Cog stratagem, combined with Shroudpsalm to make targeting the Knight unenviable.

 

 

Fist bots and the Knight march forward. Both sets of bots change to their appropriate protocols for next turn. Shooting is fairly ineffective, plinking off a few scarabs and some warriors, missing out on first blood. Several of my units were out of position to shoot due to covering ground to protect me from 'deep strike' pylon and centipede. I claimed an objective on the building with the rangers.

 

 

Centipede and Pylon turn up. They blast my breachers off the board, earning first blood. In the last game they played, they killed a combined total of 1 havoc so definitely an improvement.

 

 

Necron warriors and Arcs get through my 1+ save on the kastellans to kill one of them. At the end of his shooting phase John remembers his lord has a one use super Death Ray thingie, so decides to use it on the remaining robot. He had previously joked that since it was a one shot weapon he would inevitably miss. In fact, he does hit, but I roll a 6 for my invulnerable meaning he takes a mortal wound for his troubles.

 

 

Robot and Knight continue forward, while the datasmith runs back to the shooty ones. With the 'protector' protocols now in effect, I use the Elimination Volley and the Ryza plasma stratagem on the servitors. In hindsight this was a waste of a command point since I shot at warriors that would be wounded on a 2+ with supercharge anyway, but I just got excited.

 

 

This is my roll for number of shots on my Plasma Culverins (that definitely aren't grav guns).

 

 

Combined shooting from the robots and the servitors reduces the yellow squad of Necrons from 20 to 2. In other news the Knight and the Onagar kill the centipede and the pylon, leaving my half of the board filling in Mechanicus control. The fist bot charges into the scarabs, piling into the blue squad to stop them shooting. He whiffs hard, only hitting twice, and getting a single kill, even after rerolling a double 1 to wound (finally got to use my dogma...) In return the Necron Warriors pile in with a bonus attack from their lord, reducing the bot to 1 wound.

 

 

Blue warriors disengage and go hide in the terrain. Yellow squad grows back a bit, while a scarab returns. Necron shooting finishes off the Robot, but not before he bounces a mortal wound back to the cryptek as a robotic middle finger.

 

 

With the gun robots and the plasma servitors still in position, I decided to splurge my last command points on another Elimination Volley.

 

 

Combined Fire from Culverins, Phsopher Blasters and the Avenger cannon on the Knight eliminates the blue squad of warriors. The Knight also kills off the Spyder with it's rocket pod.

 

 

Necrons fall back into position to target the Knight. With the yellow squad growing still, mass Gauss guns and whatever the Arcs do stripped the Knight down to 13 wounds, still just about fully functioning. The rest of my army is ignored this turn.

 

 

I move forward to claim central objectives. On my backfield my characters are running around claiming objectives to defend. The datasmith fumbles the disks and the gun bots are stuck in Protector mode for another turn, out of range of anything.

 

 

The Knight engages the warriors. I think he shot everything at them and charged, but he was firing wild and failed to take them out.

 

 

As you can see, it has turned into Necrons vs Knight, while the Ad Mech grab objectives. That Lord charges the Knight, surviving overwatch to reduce it down around 5 wounds. John then realised there was a special rules he could have been using on his lord that could have allowed him to steal one of my guns to shoot with. With that realisation, the Knight stood on his head, ending that possibility.

 

 

In turn 5 the Necrons finally kill the Knight, but the game ends. I've been grabbing cards here and there, giving me a solid 12-7 victory (IIRC).

 

The Knight didn't kill that much really (certainly not his points cost, not by a long shot) but he was fast and took a lot of killing. If it didn't win me he game, it certainly secured it for me by forcing the Necrons to deal with it. Plus he is a sexy model (and definitely dedicated to the Omnissiah, not Slaanesh), so I'll probably buy one. Not sure if it's better to take all the guns, or go for a cheaper Errant and fit an extra Onagar or some Dragoons in there though...

[blokeyblokeman]

Another good game and hard lesson in codex balance and fish dice

I think necrons are going in the cabinet for a while till a new codex appears

Emperors children are coming back out!

[Silentz]

Always enjoy these batreps!  

 

That knight is hilarious!!

[Ammonius]

Thank you for taking the time to do these Battle Reports! Informative and fun :)

[Redtoof]

Hello everyone. Back with another Ad Mech Bat Rep. This time Regular Opponent John brought his terrifyingly pink Emperor's Children to play.

 

His list was roughly: 2 lords on steeds, Daemon Prince, 12 Noise Marines, 2x10 Cultists, 2x Contemptor with double Fists and soul burners, 2x Decimators with double soul burners, Leviathan with double butcher cannons. He has 7 command points (as do I).

 

My list, which is currently my entire collection, was: 2x Dominus, Enginseer, Datasmith, 10 Rangers with 3 Arc rifles, 3 Arc breachers, 3 Plasma Destroyers (actually have plasma weapons this time), Neutron Onagar, 2 Shooty Kastellans, 2 Punchy Kastellans and a partially painted Knight Crusader. A part of me knows that another Onagar and some Dragoons would have been a better option than the knight, but a bigger part of me really wanted a big stompy robot with lots of guns. Incidentally my warlord trait is the one that gives you a command point on a 6 when anyone uses. Stratagem, and my Relic is the weapon 99. Neither of which did a whole lot.

 

We played the 'standard' maelstrom mission where we each have 3 cards, with no funny business. To compliment that we rolled up the good old 12 inches in long board edges deployment.

 

 

Units on the board. John finished deployment before me. He has Cultists, a Decimator and both Contemptors hiding behind that building with the noise marines on top.

 

 

My roll to seize. 2nd game in a row. I think that might be why John deployed so defensively.

 

 

First turn I advance punchy bots, move Knight into a central position to fulfil his role as "world's biggest distraction Carnifex". I use a command point to give him the benefit of shroudpsalm. I balls up and forget to change protocols on my robots until the end of the movement phase, so they go unchanged. Ryza stratagem + Supercharge on the destroyers gets rid of one of the Decimators, while Rangers and the Avenger cannon reduce the noise marines to 2 models. As a result my rangers are also reduced to 2 models. A lot of fire goes on the (in cover) Leviathan but it does basically nothing.

 

 

The walkers shuffle around the building to get shots at the knight. It takes a lot of Fire from all the soul burners, the Leviathan and the 2 blastmasters (using veterans of he long war)

 

 

The Knight does it's job, I guess? The noise marines are the ones to finish it off, in spite of me using command points for iron shields and a reroll on a save. Was really hoping to survive on one wound in order to make use of the 'act like nothing is wrong' stratagem, followed by the auto explode one.

 

 

This turn punchy robots get the tapes changed and advance into the enemy lines. I decide not to go double shooty in case the robots need to move and the datasmith dies (he was following the punchy ones) this proves to be a mistake. In other news shooting kills the Decimator, but John passes a lot of saves to reduce damage elsewhere. I kill a noise marine, but the last one hangs on.

 

 

In John's turn the Prince goes to chop up some robots, while the Leviathan stomps forward to assist.

 

 

On the other flank my breachers look to have been left in an unfortunate position. They all die to mortal wounds. The lords charge in, killing the last ranger but not finishing off the dominus. The prince and Leviathan combine to kill one or the robots, but the other survives the combat. His fisting wounds the prince but doesn't kill it.

 

 

Robot retreats. John's positioning of the prince gave me a chance at warlord. My shooty robots culled the cultists to leave the prince the closest target for the destroyers, who vapourised him in exchange for one overheat. Fair trade, the prince probably spent thousands of years licking Slaanesh's toes to get where he is today, while the servitor was pulled out of a vat this morning. In other character killing news, the Onagar lines up a shot on one of the lords, but continues to roll bad and fails to hurt him.

 

 

John's remaining units are starting to clear the board however, leaving me with just my little shooty castle. Neither of us have scored many points this game (at this point I'm ahead) but John has a big juicy card up his sleeve...

 

 

In response to all this shooty death, my brave Datasmith, who survives the Leviathan's firepower by hiding behind a tree, charges in to give me a turn of no butcher cannons. I think he actually put some wounds on with his powerfist, but not enough to degrade it.

 

 

That one damn noise marine is still alive, plinking long range shots at my Kastellans.

 

 

The Emperor's Children move in for the kill. My shooting is still pretty ropey, and it takes my Onagar/Kastellans 2 turns to kill a contemptor.

 

 

The game ends on turn 5 with the forces of Ryza looking in a spot of bother. The Warlord dominus still lives, but not much else. John, thanks to the lone noise marine and a cultist unit I ignored, claims all 6 objectives and secures a rare Domination card for 6 victory points. The cards are counted at the end, and the score is 11-7 to the Emperor's Children. A closer score than it looked on the board for sure, though John was actually surprised that I only had 7 - turns out he had been mistaking me discarding cards for scoring and thought I was way ahead!

 

Overall a fun game. Two games in a row now I've siezed and lost, which is interesting. Obviously losing the Knight on turn one was a big blow, but it is a risk that I willingly take. If it hadn't died (and it nearly didn't) the game would have been very different I think. Also had some terrible rolls for my shooting, the Onagar in particular let me down this game, getting 1 shot all but once. Failing to double shot the Kastellans was probably the biggest mistake I made in this game, given that they didn't end up moving once. On the other hand I also had some good luck. Initiative obviously, and I also rolled up Shroudpsalm every turn when I rolled, which was nice. All in all with this army, and my Alpha Legion, it seems like the games are being decided by a combination of actual tactics and luck of the dice, rather than just one list being vastly superior (as has been happening with my Orks and Nids) which leaves me pretty happy with the game.

[Yoda79]

I m not sure if you d like some advice. I enjoy you reports but your lists re fun bases. If that's what you aiming for sure but you can improve . No I believe you got no more models. And you want a knight 100% . I take that for granded. And say some pointers.

 

1) you can use a second onager . And for the superb neutron but also for the invu save reroll ones if there is another onager close. So I'd take an onager fast.

2) fist Robots are bad. Make one unit of 4 dakka robots. You don't need datasmith . But if you gotta take him it's ok it can be better to protocol if your not sure . But make one big unit dakka. Cheaper better.

3) since you take 2 dominus and Ryza. Invest in plasma. Plasma destroyers vanguard with plasma and use gem specialist with dominus and elimination volley for robots and overcharged plasma. Again prefer one big group of plasma destroyers not breachers.

 

4) vanguard with plasma work fine with Ryza. Use them no need arc with Ryza. not fancy stuff simple groups with a plasma or two. Screeners obj cap etc. You can have your knight with some troops advancing and a pure dakka line with robots and destroyers. Onager can lso move if need .

 

5) you can use a 1*3 dragoon unit after the onager!!

 

 

Thanks for posting

[Redtoof]

Thanks for the advice. I will almost certainly ignore it (for now at least) as this was never one of my 'main' armies. The original plan was for a 1000 point allied force to go with my wife's Sisters of Battle, so it's kind of grown since then. (Incidentally I'm planning to introduce her to 8th soon so we might get a battle rep of that...)

 

The advice is still good though, I hope it will be very useful if someone is reading and wants to know how to make a more competitive list than mine. :)

[Redtoof]

I'm back again.

 

I wasn't really intending on playing more Ad Mech for a while, with the new Tyranids out, but I recently finished painting my Knight, who died in the first turn last time, so I thought I'd give him another go at a 'first game' now he's all pretty and everything. (Here he is: http://www.bolterandchainsword.com/topic/341440-house-taranis-knight/?p=4933974).

 

Playing against John and the Emperor's Children as usual. We played the Spoils of War (where you steal your opponent's securing objective orders). My list was identical to the last game. 2x Dominus, Enginseer, Datasmith, Rangers, Breachers, Destoryers, Neutron Onagar, Punchy Kastellans, Shooty Kastellans, Knight. John took a list featuring combi-melta Terminators along with jump pack lord and Sorcerer. The rest of the list was fairly familiar, 2 Decimators with soul burners, 2 Contemptors with Fists and soulburners, a prince, a sizeable unit of noise marines and 3x10 cultists.

 

 

Deployment. Was the corner triangle map (vanguard strike?). I finished deployment first, but I kept the Knight a bit further back in case I was seized upon, at least the soul burner guys would have to run if they wanted a crack at him.

 

 

I do go first. I randomised my canticles in order to get a point for maelstrom, and rolled shroudpsalm. Limited use in this game, facing sonic weapons and mortal wound guns. I shuffled to make sure my squishy rangers were not within 24 of the noise marines, then opened fire. The Knight did admirably, finishing off the noise marine squad and one of the Decimators for first blood.

 

 

The Terminators arrive. Psychic phase is a disappointment for John who failed to warp time the Terminators into Half range of the Knight, and failed to cast death hex on it. He did cast prescience with his warlord to score plenty of points with the harness the Warp card on a priority order (or mission critical- the one your warlord has to achieve).

 

 

John's shooting just about finished off the Knight, thanks to veterans of the long war and Endless Cacophony on the Terminators, but it took pretty much everything. At this stage I was fairly happy the Knight had done his job. The Knight promptly exploded, which I couldn't reroll since I had tried to reroll the Knight's last save. The explosion killed a Breacher and the non-warlord Tech Priest Dominus.

 

As an additional insult, the Terminators and the lord failed to charge the breachers in the ruin, who killed a Terminator on overwatch.

 

 

This turn the Kastellans have 'Protector' protocols engaged, and the Destroyers are in range of several targets. I take the reroll 1s in the shooting phase canticle and dump 3 command points to use the elimination volley and the Ryza plasma stratagem on the Destroyers. Combined Fire takes out both Contemptors and picks off a couple of Terminators.

 

 

John moves the remaining Decimator and prince out of LoS of the Kastellans/Destroyers, while the Terminators head for the Breachers. Mortal wounds drop a punchy robot and reduce the other to 3 wounds. The Terminators and Sorcerer finish the Breachers and take their spot in the central ruin. John is starting to feel thin on the ground, but he is picking up objectives.

 

 

The counter charge! Plasma and the warlord's relic Volkite weapon finish the Terminators, while the Kastellans kill off a cultist unit trying to defend and objective. With the chant of the remorseless fist ringing out across the battlefield, the warlord Dominus charges the Sorcerer, felling him in glorious combat!

 

 

John's remaining forces press forward. He has big game hunter so he throws mortal wounds and metal from the lord on the Onagar, dropping it to 4 wounds. The Lord charges in with his powerfist but fails to finish the job. The Prince does kill off the last punchy bot before it can swing. Cultists also charge my rangers, but my guys kill loads of them, and the Alpha stands tall at the end.

 

 

I withdraw from combats and send some character hunting for blood and guts. Kastellans/destroyers whiff on killing the Decimator, leaving it on 1 wound. (Destroyers managed 4 shots between them.) The dominus fires all his guns at the remaining cultists who attacked the rangers, killing them all. The datasmith makes the charge on the chaos lord and finishes him off with a glorious power fist to the groin. (note, pic taken after the prince moved in the next turn)

 

 

The Decimator tries to finish off the Onagar, but it holds on win one wound thanks to some repairs earlier. Prince charges the robots and piles in to the destroyers to keep them from shooting. He kills a robot but one survives...

 

 

Robots and Servitors fall back. Onagar finally kills the last Decimator. Some minor shooting deals a little damage on the prince. In John's turn his prince charges the servitors next to an objective, scoring points while killing them. The Engineer who so far has done very little apart from guard an objective has a heroic intervention and pops 3 wounds on the prince with his servo arm!

 

We roll to see if the game continues, it does. If it had ended here on turn 5 I would have been behind on objectives.

 

 

Enginseer falls back, I shoot the prince. The hero Dominus warlord finishes him off with two moral wounds from the Volkite relic. I score ascendancy, kingslayer and secure and objective for a 8 point turn with slay the warlord, putting me ahead. Cards are counted, and I win with 15 to 11. Technically the game would have gone on another turn but John only has a unit of cultists left so concedes.

 

Great game, though not so for some of John's dice at key moments. The Knight eating all the firepower plus many command points was key, as I still had plenty left to hurt him back. He definitely did his job.

[Bokkerz]

Love these battle reports, keep them coming!

[Redtoof]

I've got another bag rep!

 

This time I dragged my wife (and our dog - though she did not feature in this battle) along to John's house and we took a combined Imperial army against the Emperor's Children. We played one of the chapter approved missions with points for holding objectives each turn and for this game the wife was on the camera.

 

My half of this list featured a Ryza Battalion of Dominus, Enginseer, 3 Breachers, 3 Destroyers, 5 Rangers anda superheavy auxiliary of a knight Errant.

The wife had an adeptus ministorum Battalion featuring Celestine, Canoness with the blade of admonition, 8 Sisters with flamer/heavy flamer, 2 units of 5 sisters with a multimelta, all flamer dominions, 2 rhinos, Immolator with flamers, a Priest and a unit of 6 Arco-flagellants.

 

John's force features a Battalion and a Spearhead IIRC, with a Prince, Jump pack Lord, Jump pack Sorcerer, noise marine squad, 2 cultist units, 2 sonic dreads with missile launchers, 2 plasma havoc squads, Dreadclaw, Leviathan with butcher cannons and a Fire Raptor.

 

 

We deployed with the Knight and transports at the front of a wedge. Most of the objectives were mid field so we were going forward even if we didn't want to anyway. We have some infantry on the flanks/in the ruins to provide fire support and deny the dreadclaw backline access.

 

 

The Emperor's Children spread out, with Noise Marines, supported by the Leviathan and the Prince on a central objective, while the dreads take opposite flanks, along with cultists on one side and Fire Raptor on the other.

 

 

That plane is scary! John finishes deploying first but I roll a 6 to go first, so we will take first turn.

 

 

We move up aggressively to take central objectives. Thanks to the 'scout' move before the first turn and a 6 on the advance roll, the Immolator is right up there, and the dominions disembark into the woods to try and set fire to the noise marines. We kill off a good chunk of them with combined shooting from various sister units, while elsewhere the Knight puts some wounds on a sonic dread while the Destroyers go Ryza stratagem + Supercharge and put 9 wounds on the Leviathan, losing one servitor in the process. We scored 3 points.

 

 

Pod drops in and the Raptor zooms over the battlefield. We pull a chapter approved Sisters Stratagem to deny Death Hex on the Knight (employing a reroll to pass the 4+) while John fails some powers elsewhere. When the plasma havocs start firing I put Rotate Ion Shields on the Knight, and between that and some poor rolls it only loses 10 wounds this turn, leaving it fully operational.

 

 

My destroyers are not so lucky, getting blasted off the board, while the Breachers and the Immolator take fire but survive. John holds 2 objectives but has first blood to draw even.

 

 

Turn 2 is all about the charges, but not before the Knight hits the Raptor with a load of melta, reducing it significantly. Fire from Celestine and the Immolator hurt it further, and the Living Saint herself flys up to finish it off. Elsewhere the Arcos and their Priest overseer get out of the Rhino, with the cyborg berserkers charging both havoc squads. Eager to get some use out of that giant chainsword, the Knight charges the Leviathan, taking around 10 wounds from overwatch (2 damage heavy flamers are nasty) reducing it to the bottom bracket.

 

 

Celestine chops into the flyer but only manages to reduce it to 2 wounds. We used a command point to try and force the thing out of the sky but it failed.

 

 

The Knight slices the infernal Leviathan in half with his mighty blade, while the Flagellants murder one of the havoc squads. I don't think I've seen or heard of anyone using them in 8th but standing next to a priest and generating 3D3 attacks each is quite scary! We picked up 3 more objectives this turn I think.

 

 

The Fire Raptor flys out of combat and starts shooting all over the place. Several Sisters are killed, as well as the last of my Breachers, thanks to support from the dreads. Smite from the Prince and Sorcerer kill off the Knight, while cultists kill off most of the Arcos, and charge the remaining one.

 

 

The big event of this turn, the Prince charges Celestine. In spite of Emperor's Children/Slaanesh relics and warlord traits, he does no damage to Celestine, and her return attacks bring him down to one wound! John scores a couple more points as he is holding objectives with the dreadclaw and the remaining noise marines.

 

 

Hilariously the cultists fail to kill the 1 wound Arco-Flagellant, who gets a load of attacks and butchers a bunch of cultists before his head explodes. Around him John's jump characters kill off the Priest and the Enginseer, who had followed the knight in hopes of fixing it a bit.

 

 

In our turn Celestine uses her free Act of Faith to finish off the Prince, before zooming over towards the Sorcerer. For our other act we find a single remaining melta sister is in range of the Fire Raptor. She takes it out of the sky, before legging it on to an objective.

 

 

The 8 strong sister squad finally gets out of the Rhino and make short work of the two remaining Noise Marines, securing us another objective. Celestine makes short work of the Sorcerer, and faces off against cultists, while the Canoness fails a charge against the Jump Pack Lord. We pick up 4 objectives and Warlord, putting us in a strong position.

 

In John's response, pretty much everything fires at Celestine, taking her down. Wife rolls a 1 for her to get back up, however we have saved our last command point for this very occasion, and she is revived on full wounds, much to John's disappointment. (Watch out for a strongly worded email GW). To confound the issue, his jump pack Lord charges my Dominus, the last Ryza model on the board, and takes 4 wounds from overwatch (I got 2 hits with the Eradication Ray), fails to kill him, and is promptly slain with the Omnissian Axe. Just to rub it in, I regenerate the 3 wounds he caused in our next turn.

 

 

Apart from 2 dreads John doesn't have much left on the board. Our three characters combine to kill off the dreadclaw and claim an objective.

 

 

We have total control of the centre of the board, and a healthy led in points. With 2 dreads in the corners and a handful of cultists John concedes. A victory for the Adeptus Mechanicus and their handy little allies, The Imperium of Man.

 

A fun game, though one where John cursed both his luck and the GW design team. We definitely had the best of turn 1 but in turn 2 I thought John was going to pull it back until Celestine went into beast mode and tanked all the Prince's hits. She is an absolute monster.

[Clingy]

Haha great stuff. I quite the idea of slotting in Celestine into my army but what to drop.

 

Love these bat reps :)

[CombatVet]

Love the battle reports.

 

Enjoy how you keep it to a short summary of each round with some nice pictures.

[Bjorn Firewalker]

Congratulations on your victory. I have a question regarding your opponent's plague doctor costumed models: Are they Chaos Space Marines, cultists, or Daemons?

[brother_b]

Yeah pink plague doctors. That's cool. Thanks for the reports, good stuff all around.

[Redtoof]

Thanks for kind words all. John's pink plague doctors are Slaanesh cultists. Greenstuff over guardsmen. Each of his cultists units have unique headgear, which is pretty cool, but the top hat plague doctors are definitely the niftiest.

[Redtoof]

Now I've got an Ad Mech report on the blog!

 

https://redtoof.blogspot.co.uk/2018/05/battle-report-adeptus-mechanicus-vs.html