MagicHat's mighty Tempest

[MagicHat]

Gaming Club is running a league where you add 500 points every 3 months into a new army.

 

And what do you know, I have some Tempestus, Custodes, SoS and Inquisition that I have pondered turning into an army for a while now.

 

Back when the Tempestus where initially released, I saw some models that could be turned into pretty cool Skitarii if you added some robes, so I did, resulting in these guys.

 

 

 

Then GW released actual Skitarii, blowing my paltry models out of the water but whatever, I am making more now.

 

My WIP so far:

Taurox Prime, mightiest and greatest frontline tank of the Imperium, nay, THE UNIVERSE! with battlecannon/gatling gun, Stormbolter, Autocannons.

 

Plasma squad, with Skitarii Vanguards helmets and the "Knife to meet you" plasma boys. Red helmets to distinguish them.

 

Hot shot volley gun squad with Ranger heads, currently borrowing boys and sergeant from initial squad. Will have white hoods and black trim to distinguish from first squad. Powerfist guy goes with the melta squad. 

 

My two daring commanders! Sword and head from Skitarii, power fist from Datasmith.

 

This guy is the start of a Knight household squad, with flamers and grenade launchers. Far in the future for me though.

 

This part of my Agents of the Imperium army wont grow that much more though in the foreseeable future. There will be another Taurox Prime, probably a heavily converted Command squad and 2 five man household squads. Possibly a squad made from the Van Saar models.

[MagicHat]

So, had the first league battle this Saturday, 500 points. Killing 200 points awarded 1 VP, 400 2 VP, wiping the enemy awarded 3 VP no secondary.

 

My list was:

Commander, (Warlord) with Power Sword, plasma pistol, Grand Strategist and Sword of Conquest relic.

 

Commander, Rod of Command, Power Fist. Laurels of command relic.

 

7 Scions with 2 Plasma, Sergeant with Power Sword and Plasma Pistol.

 

6 Scions with 2 Melta guns, Sergeant with Power Fist and Plasma Pistol.

 

5 Scions with 2 Volley guns, Sergeant with Chainsword and Plasma Pistol.

 

Match 1 versus Custodes Supreme Command. 1 Bike Captain with relic bike, 2 Allarus one of them with grenade launcher relic.

 

In every game, my Warlord started in the Taurox alongside the volley gun squad and the rest deep struck.

Opponent usually won first turn, which was more then fine with me.

Custodes was very spread out, deep striking one terminator close to my Taurox, bike towards my left and other guy trudging up my center rightish.

He does 1 damage to my Taurox, fails the charge and takes 1 damage from overwatch. My turn, volley squad and warlord gets out into a forest. Taurox stays put. The rest descends with the fury of the Emperor at the edge of the left table, out of reach of the other terminator, and obliterates the bike guy despite his puny 3+ invulnerable. Melta guys MVP, doing 5 damage. He used a command re-roll to save one of the melta hits.

Volley squad and Warlord does 2 damage in shooting.

Custodes turn, he kills the volley squad, consolidates into Warlord, who strikes true and deals 1 damage. One captain down to 3 wounds, the other trying to get cover from my angry blob of killers.

My turn, My Warlord goes back into the Taurox and goes of trying to join up with the rest of the squads. Blob goes hunting after the hiding captain, and the rest of the game turns weird. 

Hiding captain shoots the melta squad, killing the meatshields but leaving the sergeant and meltas alive. My blob catches up and downs him in a single turn as well. The wounded captain stays in the forest and trades shots with my Taurox for 2 turns, neither dealing damage. Big mistake IMO, he could easily have downed it in melee. 5th turn by plasma squads and the Taurox manage to take out the last 3 wounds, netting 3-0 win to me.

 

Match 2, Harlequins, 2 transports with shuriken cannon, 2 squads with whatever gear and the leader. Big hill in the middle. Harlequin turn, he hides behind the hill. 

Glorious Tempestus turn, Taurox drives up the hill and brings one transport down to 3 wounds, the blob destroys the other transport. He decides that 24 bolter shots are too many to leave alive and surrounds the Taurox with all his forces, the remaining transport charging first and losing 2 wounds to overwatch. 

It looks like the game is over, as the Taurox is killed by my blunder, not knowing that harlequins can run and charge...

JK. Using my tactical genius, I tricked all my enemies into charging the Taurox which blows up, just as planned, sending about half the perfidious harlequins into an early grave, downing their transport and killing only 1 hot shot lasgunner (and reducing my Warlord to 1 wound...)

 

Harlequin player consolidates his HQ into my warlord amid a sea of salt and on my turn, I naturally... stays in combat. Blob moves up the hill using move move move, volley guns takes down one squad and my warlord uses the fight order on himself, killing the enemy warlord. Remaining harlequins drags the plasma guys into a fight while killing the volley gun squad except the sergeant, whom proceeds to open up a can of whoop-ass, killing 2 eldars using his trusty chainsword and last eldar gets shanked by the plasma gunners.

Another 3-0 victory in my favour.

 

Last match, Tzeentch with Lord of Change (impossible robe, -1 damage WL) herald on foot, 10 horrors.

Managed to kill the horrors and the herald (but not before he managed to smite my last melta squad members), big bird would not go down. 

9 wounds left when I gave up and charged my Volley sergeant, both commanders, 5 plasma gunners and did nothing.

Wiped turn 5, 0-3 points. Bit salty, because he claimed one rule wrong and I was to tired to find the passage during the game. Might have caused another wound, which would have meant at least 1 VP.

 

Anyhow. Kept forgetting Grand Strategist and plasma pistols in close combat.

Take Aim was primary order, but all orders except Forwards, for the Emperor! and First rank, second rank was used to vital effect. 

CP was spent on Take Cover!, re-rolls and Fight to the Death. Could probably have used Inspired tactics at some point to good effect, but forgot it existed. 

Definitely should have used Vengeance for Cadia in the last fight... Rest of the stratagems didn't really seem that useful to me.

Overall, happy with how the army played out. By the time I placed the Taurox, enemy had already deployed everything of his army.

[WarriorFish]

I like how it doesn't take too much to make the Scions look AdMech, a couple of strong wins is a good result. A LoC at 500pts is a bit rubbish though, so I wouldn't feel bad about struggling there. Keep us updated on your additions :tu:

[MagicHat]

I like how it doesn't take too much to make the Scions look AdMech, a couple of strong wins is a good result. A LoC at 500pts is a bit rubbish though, so I wouldn't feel bad about struggling there. Keep us updated on your additions

 

Scions/Skitarii/Genestealer Neophytes are some of the best releases ever IMO. I look forward what can be done with Orlocks and Van Saars as well.

 

I believe that guy went 9-0, so yeah. 

IIRC, the other forces were:

DG, with malignant plaugecaster and 2 squads plaugemarines, 17 in total.

AM with Leman russ executioner tank commander, leman russ MBT and 2 cyclops(?) demolition tanks. (The tiny suiciders)

8 year old with Salamanders lieutenant, captain, intercessors and helblasters from the starter.

DA with Ezekiel, apothecary, DW champ and DW squad.

Necrons with overlord, scarabs, warriors, heavy destroyer, immortals.

SM with primaris, don't remember what.

Khorne Deamons with doublehanded axe, flesh hounds and blood letters.

Another guard player, didn't appear though.

 

Bit light on xenos unfortunately.

[Halfpint100]

Lord of change in 500 points is not a nice move IMO

[Bjorn Firewalker]

Good job on the stormtroopers.

[MagicHat]

Laughably little progress so far due to a lot of work. Taurox is approaching completion, while the other squads have at least had some paint added to them.

 

Because of the time constraints, I decided to go with Custodes for the next league day, and still did not end up finishing them either.

 

My list for the 1000 point games was:

Battalion

Tempestus Commander, with Power Sword, plasma pistol.

 

Tempestus Commander, Rod of Command, Power Fist. Laurels of command relic.

 

7 Scions with 2 Plasma, Sergeant with Power Sword and Plasma Pistol.

 

6 Scions with 2 Melta guns, Sergeant with Power Fist and Plasma Pistol.

 

5 Scions with 2 Volley guns, Sergeant with Chainsword and Plasma Pistol.

 

Supreme Command Detachment:

Shield Captain on bike, relic bike, Salvo launcher and misericordia. WL trait: Deny the Witch.

 

Shield Captain on bike, hurricane bolter, misericordia.

 

Allarus Shield Captain with Auric Shackles, Castellan Axe, misericordia.

 

So, 1000 points, games automatically ends after turn 6, tactical objectives. 1-5 VP difference, 1-1 league points, 6+ VP difference 2-0 league points, wiping opponent gives 3 league points, but you can still gain 1 point if you had more VP.

 

Game 1 versus Deamons of Nurgle, with:

Rotigus.

Scrivener.

Bilepiper.

Soulgrinder.

2*3 Nurglings.

23 Plaugebearers.

 

I put my Allarus, Laurel Commander and plasma+melta squad in deepstrike, and in fact did so in every game. Other commander, volley squad and taurox deployed opposite his main forces, jetbikes towards his flank with the soulgrinder. 

His positioning was fairly obvious. Barely any LoS blocking in the middle. I gave him turn 1.

 

He advanced stuff up the board, went for objectives with his nurglings and the soulgrinder put my taurox at 6 wounds remaining. My turn, I goes up the board with my jetbikes and takes some shots, but doesn't want to charge his nurglings quite yet, as that would leave them very exposed. The plaugebearer horde have -2 to hit, so I ignores them for now. End of turn, 1 Nurgling unit is down to 1 base with 2 wounds, and one unit with 2 bases.

 

His turn 2, the Taurox and volley gun gets charged, and I HI the commander. Tactically questionable, but it works out and the plaguebearers are locked in combat. Hilariously, he discards a Defend the Objective card that his nurglings are at because he thinks they are about to be wiped by the jetbikes. 

My turn 2, the jetbikes zooms off behind the plaugebearers, conveniently right next to the Scrivener and with option for charging the soulgrinder, Rotigus or the support characters. My deepstrikers comes down behind his forces. Shooting takes out the Soulgrinder and Scrivener, and my jetbikes charges Rotigus.

His turn 3 is essentially combat and meaningless nurgling movement.

My turn 3, the jetbikes are both dead. I manage to kill Rotigus with shooting, and eliminates one Nurgling group. 

Turn 4 is ineffective combat for his plauge bearers. 

My turn 4, the Taurox at 2 wounds finally falls back and the plaugebearers goes below 20 from shooting. I charge the last remaining Nurgling with the captain and stomps them out, which... left him open to be charged. Which he was his turn 5. My turn 5, I grab some objectives with the Taurox and maneouver around to cover space.

Turn 6, my Allarus captain, hilariously, ends up less tough then the Taurox and dies.

I move up and shoot him with my basically untouched melta/plasma squads (Except for one guy that fried himself) and shoots. And then I charged which pulled me out of linebreaker, but he was reduced to 3 plaugebearers and a wounded bilepiper, one more turn and I would have wiped him, but I didn't know we automatically stopped at turn 6.

Wound up 1-1 in the end.

 

Game 2 against Death Guard.

Plaugecaster warlord with 2+ save and 4+ FNP.

Grenade guy.

2 groups of 8-9 plaguemarines.

Plaugeburst crawler-

5 Blightlords with 3 combiplasma, flail and a blight launcher.

Inwards wedge deployment, and there was a huge LoS blocker in the middle, so I deployed my jetbikes behind it and placed my Taurox so it could shoot one squad of marines but nothing else could shoot it. 

Game went kinda poorly. He managed a lot of FNP saves, and my Custodes kept failing. 

Last round, my Taurox moved for the first and last time. He had 4 Blightlords and the Crawler (That only lost 6 wounds) left and scrapped my Taurox in one turn of shooting. Luckily, it didn't explode and my single Tempestor inside denied him the wipeout.

Another 1-1, although one that would have ended me this time if there had been another turn.

 

Game 3 was a rematch against the Custodes player from league day 1.

His force was now... 

Valoris.

2 Jetbike captains (one with relic bike).

1 Allarus with Castellan Axe.

1 Allarus with Gatekeeper relic and WL trait that gives -1 to hit.

1 Vexilla with -1 to hit for enemy shooting. 

 

We are in a diagonal deployment where our zones are 12" apart.

Basically, he is in a blob, with the jetbikes a bit apart...

 

I deploy a bit back with my taurox and jetbikes, trying to bait his jetbikes to soar ahead, but he doesn't take it. His "blob" moves ahead, but he keeps his jetbikes at a distance.

My turn, I deepstrike into my own deployment zone and open fire. Vexilla must die, but doesn't. The Allarus captain with axe does though. My jetbikes goes forth on a suicide run, the warlord charging the vexilla but getting HI by Valoris. Crucially, his bikes were out of range. Second jetbike charges Valoris, his warlord with gatekeeper HI. A cluster of Custodes, but I kill the vexilla, and manages to survive.

His turn, in his overconfidence, he lets the jetbikes jump ahead to kill the Scions and my Allarus. Their Hurricane Bolter fire manages to kill the entire melta squad (even with the Take Cover Stratagem!) and all the lasguns in the plasma squad. He combocharges the Allarus/plasma guns and my overwatch (OVERCHARGE) takes 4 wounds from the relic bike. Allarus dies, but I activate a stratagem that lets him fight in death and kills the relic bike.

Valoris takes my WL down to 2 wounds, then my jetbikes kills him, before his WL takes one bike down. 

My turn, I fall back with the warlord and opens fire at his last jetbike with the remainder of my forces and takes him out. At this point, I am left with 2w WL, 3 from the plasma gun squad, volley squad, taurox and both commanders vs 1 unhurt, -1 to hit Allarus captain with rapidfire 3 MC bolter.

 

He shoots and charges my WL and completely whiffs it. Bolter almost kills me, but Victor of the Blood games re-roll saves me. My turn, I fall back, sends one Commander to an objective with Move Move Move and manage to gun him down.

3-1 to me due to wipe.

Ended up 3rd place of 8, so quite happy. Deamons of Tzeentch that beat me won again, although a sisters of battle player managed to kill the bird at last.

 

 

I love the Laurels of Command.

I did use rapid fire 2, extra fight and move move move once or twice, but in most cases I just needs to make my plasma and melta work with re-roll to hit/wound.

 

I mostly used Vengeance for Cadia, occasionally used Take Cover or the take morale on a 1d3. Otherwise, generic reroll took a lot of CP for crucial wound rolls/saves.

 

There is still things I want to add to the Scions list, (command squad made from Van Saar chief amongst them) but for the next 500 points, I am making a Custodes Battalion.

[WarriorFish]

Third is a good result well done! :) Sounds like you did quite well in the games too, not sure about the set game length though the randomness is good I find to help prevent some boring ends to games.

[MagicHat]

Yeah, we rolled for turn 6, but turn 7 was skipped due to time constraints. First game started at 12:30 and the wrap up and deciding of best painted army finished at 21:30, so I can understand the decision.

[Bjorn Firewalker]

I must commend your workon the Taurox, and hope to see it completed soon.

[Hatarus]

man those Chevrons look really good