Prot's Quick Batrep: Ultramarines vs. Admech (2K Maelstrom)

[Prot]

Most of my batreps start with a critical moment.... so I have to reach into about the mid point of the game for this unfortunate scene:

++ This is not an Ultramarine going into a donut shop. It's 'counts as' Calgar going toe to toe with an Admech Knight. The Inceptors and the Ultramarines' back line watch on in disbelief (at the insane heroism or stupidity is yet to be determined) ++

This battle report has some of the Primaris models in it, and it's a bit misleading because this is the army I planned to field:

++ This was to be my list for the game, however, I determined I did not want to use Guilliman as a crutch. I changed a large portion of the list and not all models would be WYSIWYG. ++

This is what I ended up bringing:

Calgar

Lt.

2 x 5 Intercessors

1 x 5 Scouts

5 x Cataphractii Termies

1 Storm raven carrying: 3 Centurions, 1 Apothecary, 1 Contemptor Dreadnought. (* The Stormraven is Proxied by a Stormhawk)

1 x Razorback with Twin Assault

3 x Inceptors

5 x Plasmablasters

Admech List:(Sorry I don't know the name of their stuff very well)

- Tech priest. HQ (there were a few of these dudes, but I can't remember the name of the Warlord)

- Knight

- Squad of Destroyers with Plasma

- Squad of Destroyers with Grav

- Ranger squad with Plasma

- Infiltrators with pointy spindly legs and tazers

- 3 giant robots that never friggin die.

- Onager Dune Crawler <--- Nasty D3 S10 shots I think

- 2 Dunestriders? Tall spindly walker dudes with probes for... probing.

The Game:

- Deadlock? We start with 6 Objective cards and have to discard down (if necessary) a card per turn. At Turn 3, Command Points cost double to use.

- I end up going first, and the shady Admech fail to seize.

Deployment/Early Game:

- Calgar and friends zoom up the right flank. I REALLLY did not want to do this. My cards were the pits. I sense the meddling of Belararius at play. My only 'doable' card is really on my left flank, but I have very thin coverage of Intercessors. Still they 'advance' to get to the objective, and do not make it within 3"! I have to blow a command point to get there....

- The Ultramarines full movement for the turn looks something like this:

++ Calgar orders a full press towards the Knight. The left flank is left exposed but too many points hang on this corner of the table. ++

- Back to right flank the reason I don't want to go here is the Knight is sitting in that corner, however, Calgar is given orders (defend an objective AND secure an objective) which the Knight is sitting on top of. That's a bad break but Calgar doesn't complain... he orders the Stormraven up that flank with full cargo remaining aboard.

- Calgar himself comes down in flash with 5 Cataphractii, and 3 Inceptors. His aura will help, but the Stormraven is outside of the aura. The Knight has to be 'damaged' if not brought down entirely... This picture is from the Admech's turn, but you get the idea:

++ With a hail of firepower from the Stormraven, Inceptors, Razorback, and Centurions, the Knight would take little damage. ++

- The Knight takes very little damage. I hoped the Stormraven would do more... but no dice... literally.

- Desperate times call for desperate measures, I attempt to assault the Knight but require a 9" charge.... I roll a 1 and a 3, so not even worth using a command point for, and therefore Calgar wisely decides to not make the attempt. Unfortunately 2 whole Cataphractii Termies DIE in overwatch from the Knight! I need Ballersarius to make me some new ones!

- Ultramarines only accomplish the one point on the opposite flank of this mess. However it has left them in the open of a LOT of firepower.

.

++ Chirps and beeping followed by "Intruder Alert" can be heard across the battlefield as Admech rolls out. This shows the battlefield from the Admech side, in the far flank, Ultramarines have very little defense, and the Admech happen to have some points sitting there waiting to be claimed. ++

- Ultramarine Intercessors can do very little about denying the Admech in my left flank. All they can do is die... slower-ish if possible! They do take a lot of firepower, but the Admech is relentless. A lot of shots are fired, but the Intercessors somehow live for now. Meanwhile the rest advanced, while the "Infiltrators' came in behind my rear guard of Intercessors. But they would not make the charge.

- Most of the Admech was targeting the Stormraven wherever and whenever possible. The Stormraven dodged and dipped, but a stray wrench was hurled into the engine turbine and the Stormraven went down and somehow the contents got out unharmed.... this was a terrible blow, as it looked for a second like the Stormraven might make it out of this turn. But things are about to get worse....

++ And back to this scene... Calgar looks on defiantly, and the Knight arrogantly strides into close combat..... fists are crackling with energy, the buzz of the massive chainsaw starts to grind to life.... ++

- The Admech Knight easily destroys the rest of the Cataphractii with firepower after watching the rest of the admech destroy the Stormraven.

- In the Fight Phase, the Knight barely makes close combat... Swinging first, the Knight swoops in and Calgar proves to be more nimble than he looks, and he manages to dodge all but 2 of the Knights attacks. The Knight would only wound once, but use a command point to re roll the second failed wound, only to wound again. I guess Cawl isn't steering this one....

- The Knight still wounds once, but Calgar's mighty ancient suit holds out and saves the wound. Calgar swings back taking the Knight down a few more wounds!

- The Admech take the lead with a few points and First Blood.

Mid Game:

- Calgar retreats from the Knight (wish I had Chapter Tactics in effect!).

- With the Raven down, the Centurions, Apothecary and Contemptor move into position. The Inceptors jump over the Knight to claim the much needed objective point. Firing hits desperation mode, I BARELY bring the Knight down. The Inceptors even fired into it causing zero wounds. A few of the Contemptor's rounds got through but the Lascannons did mediocre damage. The Knight finally goes down, I get a point.

- On my left Flank I've lost 5 Intercessors, but they didn't go down easily. They lasted through a lot of firepower. The assaulted Intercessor squad is thinning out, and there's more trouble on the way....

++ The last Intercessors try to hold the line, but more Admech are incoming. ++

- The Admech turn is full of plasma, grav, and miscellaneous beeping and chirping... the Razorback takes hits, the Centurions take wounds which would be recovered by the Apothecary.

- The Inceptor squad is wiped easily by Grav. This means I can't get "Defend" the objective.... and the Admech take a good lead with a score of 5 - 2.

End Game:

- The Ultra's have to try something to get the Intercessors out... fast forward to T5 and I am only 2 points behind, most of the destroyers are dead, or severely wounded. The Onager Dune Crawler goes down from the Contemptor, and Calgar is slowly lumbering to mid field.

- to save the Intecessors, I retreat from CC. This lines up a long shot of Lascannons to his Longstriders... which die in a hail of Centurion fire.

- I get a few points and get his Warlord for my best turn of the game going up to 12 points to his 11.

++ The Lieutenant and scouts have to gank this lowly robed construct thing... It is a character and scores me a vital late game point. ++

- The last turn of the game the only plausible option for the Admech is to steer their last Grav Destroyer into my last 3 scouts and "Fire EVERYTHING" into them... as they die it gives the Admech a final point... the Game Ends in a tie 12-12.

Conclusion:

- A thorough, and severe beating. I made big mistakes but those opening cards forced me into a horrible spot. Admech is a great army and a great matchup for marines as usual. The knight was really good as usual too.

- Now I have to decide... to take Ultramarines into the Konor campaign or Chaos!! A mere day or two away from Pre orders!!!

Thanks for reading!

[Vel'Cona]

Awesome batrep as ever, Prot!  Though I can't imagine the Calgar the Mighty falling back from a mere Knight :P

 

My vote is on Ultramarines for Konor, but mostly because I want to see what you do with the upcoming Primaris models.  :)

[Schultzhoffen]

Love picture battle reports as opposed to vid ones.

 

I second taking the Ultramarines for the campaign.

 

By the way, did you find the Contemptor to be any use ( how did you arm him?)?

[Tyberos the Red Wake]

Wow, that's a beautiful board, and a unique shade of blue! Always good to see some AdMech HQs take a beating. Those guys always think they're so hot with their mechadendrites and STCs. Any game where your Warlord is alive and theirs is dead is a win in my book.

[Blindhamster]

Great looking army, I like that you decided to go outside if your comfort zone with the list, even if it maybe cost you the game it's worth it to experiment.

 

So long as it was fun!

[Captain Idaho]

We can do with the support. Let's be honest, Konor is doomed since every race bar Imperial will be gunning for the Ultramarines.

[Prot]

Love picture battle reports as opposed to vid ones.

 

I second taking the Ultramarines for the campaign.

 

By the way, did you find the Contemptor to be any use ( how did you arm him?)?

 

Well to be honest I under utilized the Contemptor. My fault entirely as I underestimated his ability. I armed him with Kheres and rapid fire bolter.... I have not used the Contemptor dread in 8th but I thought why not because I had the ability to throw a dread in the Stormraven.

 

Normally I take shooty dreads (pure shooty). This guy moves so much faster, I didn't realize! He's hitting on 2's if he doesn't move and he's also got the invuln. I did not put this in my report because I can't remember what fired the shot... but there was a moment he took two wounds that do D6 damage each, but a minimum of '3' each. And he rolled two 5's for his saves. Most other dreads would have probably been in trouble right there.

 

I would try him again. I don't think when you have Centurions/Stormraven, etc on the board that someone wants to waste too many shots on a Contemptor but again I under used him. He put a lot of wounds into the Onagur Dune Crawler (which is a really, really tough washing machine on legs). But I would have EASILY made it int assault with the crawler IF I was moving my full 9" ! !

 

Wow, that's a beautiful board, and a unique shade of blue! Always good to see some AdMech HQs take a beating. Those guys always think they're so hot with their mechadendrites and STCs. Any game where your Warlord is alive and theirs is dead is a win in my book.

 

It's one of my favorites too. Most of my mats are from Gamemat.eu and I love this one. It just so happened to work out that both armies were themed for it!

Glad you enjoyed the batrep!

 

 

We can do with the support. Let's be honest, Konor is doomed since every race bar Imperial will be gunning for the Ultramarines.

 

It's interesting you say this... After the Konor 'tease' website went up I was curious about this. Back in the Medusa days I played Chaos and my area was split down the middle with players of both sides.

 

So last night I went to the local GW. I asked to see the Konor sign up sheet and asked the store manager what he was seeing... there's one "Chaos player" and one Death Guard player. Everything else was Imperium... or Xenos.

 

The wild card is the Xenos. I was told that each game they may flip their allegiance. But looking at my GW it appears to be an Imperium majority.

[Prot]

Wow, that's a beautiful board, and a unique shade of blue!

I just thought I'd throw some more pics in. And yea all of the Gamemat product has a very fine graphic quality to it, and it's in a fair number of my batreps:

Edited July 21, 2017 by Prot

[StrummersGhost]

Thanks for posting this, can honestly say that's the best batrep I've read! Much better than video batreps.

[Adeptus]

Thanks for posting this, can honestly say that's the best batrep I've read! Much better than video batreps.

 

I totally agree, I always prefer to read a written batrep than watch a video one.

[QuarterPounder]

Seconded, Prot. Love your batreps!

[Prot]

Thanks for the kind words and reading the batrep guys!