Tale of Gamers - knight edition

[Focslain]

So my local group is looking to do a tale of four gamers bit (well in our case it's looking like six) and I was goaded into doing admech/knights. We're looking at have 250 points of models painted and fight a battle with said growing force as time goes.

 

Issue is due to semi-poor finical decisions and some adulting (house needed repairs) I'm going to be short funds for a few months.

 

Luckly I have a bit of back stock to work with and my question to the forum. How should I escalate this?

 

Below is a list of what I was able to pull together from my backlog.

1 Warglaive built (forgebane)
rest are not built
3 Warglaives (forgebane)
2 Dominus
4 tech preists
2 knights

 

also have some fortification/terrain
Fire Redoubt
Bastion
Haemotrope reactor
Thermic Plasma Conduits
Thermic plasma regulators

 

What was suggested by our coordinator is that I use the warglaive that near done for the first battle while taking the two time slots to build and paint a knight. After that I'm a little iffy on what to hit next. From minor calculations I can do an escalation of a dominus and two tech priests as a supreme command detachment but I doubt they live long at all.

 

So suggestions on what to tackle would be appreciated.

 

As for the others in this I believe the line up is as follows:
Tau - fire warrior heavy
Drukari - Homculus list
Space Marine - IF primaris
Aldarei - possibly vehicle heavy
Unknown - possibly Chaos khrone

[Focslain]

Ok, so instead of making a new thread, we'll just continue this here. Going to semi-spam this project in an effort to get better at recording progress. So it will also be appearing in my old plog in the WIP section as well.

 

It's confirmed that I'll be doing knights for my local group's tale of gamers. Since the goal is to get roughly 2K points by the end I've formed the following end game list:

 

Steel Wolves (LoW Detachment)
- Styrix knight
- Armigar Warglaive
- Armigar ???

 

House Jenius (LoW Detachment)
- Imperial Knight (full weapon swapping options)
- Armigar Warglaive
- Armigar ???

 

We officially started on April 21st with the first 250 block due May 12th, so three week blocks. Since this fall near the start time for the upcoming ELVI I'll be declaring my projects for this local gaming event as my vows for ELVI. Of which the Styrix is the only one that might not qualify since minor details are in progress.

 

While it is suggested to start from scratch it has been allowed that if you just started an army that you can use that. So mine is a little weird since I have one Armigar done from House Jenius for the colour scheme and the styrix is partially built and painted. In a little bit of fairness I'm going to begin work on the Armigar Warglaive for the Steel Wolves detachment at the start.

Also since we are doing this in 250 blocks my escalation is going to be a little off. The plan lists are below

 

Block 1
Armigar Warglaive
Block 2
Styrix Knight
Block 3
Knight, Armigar Warglaive
Block 4
Knight, Armigar Warglaive, Armigar ??? or dual Knights if new knight codex has yet to drop

 

From Block 5 through 8 I'll take a knight and either more Armigars or pair up the knights with slowly increasing Armigar support

This seems like the easiest way to do this and I have a block or two that I can relax on since I'm a bit ahead.

We are also going to be doing both 1v1 as well as grouped games. There is a 3v3 planned for the end of the first block. I know I'm going to be an issue for the first two blocks, but after that things might shift more to the other players as we start to do Open War missions and I won't have the bodies to contest objectives.

 

Opponents

 

I'm not the only one in this of course and there are going to be about five others in our little project. I say about five because I know of two that might drop due to life being what it is. So the other armies are:

 

Durkari - Homuculci Coven
  First block has been scouted as a homuculcus, five wracks and a raider. He was going for a full squad of wracks but got a little worried since I confirmed Knights. Which mind you he asked for, no joke.  Dealing with him isn't going to be too hard as long as I can get average damage from the thermal lance and if he doesn't get lucky with his dark lance. I'm sure the Styrix can take anything else he would field in Block 2

 

T'au - Firewarrior horde
  So from the player's first posting in our little FB group, his first 250 is an etheral, 20 firewarriors and 5 pathfinders. Still a bit of fire to weather, but not nearly as much as I was worried about since I calculated that he get a battlion in with two fireblades and three firewarrior squads with room for a drone or three. That would have netted him 8 CP to start for most likely the marklight spam and other things. Instead his going for a patrol which I can try and deal with a little better.

 

Primaris Marines - Imperial Fists
  So block one is not going to be that rough, nor block two from what has been scouted. So he is going to be using a Lieutenant and Intercessors in the first block I got a rough count of nine. Block two is where this gets, weird, since he is doing fortifications and block two has a bastion plus the filling out of the intercessors. Hopefully for block three we can get him to do some much needed helblasters. For block one it's a simple advance and fire, block two I'll bombard the bastion with the volkite until it collapses.

 

And the last two are the ones I'm not sure will stay in.

 

Daemons
  Chaos has taken our fifth and his going full deamon, starting with a group of slaanesh in the form of a herald and some fiends. Later his adding chariots and most likely going dual god with khorne.

 

Aedlari - Saim Hann

  I know he has two of the old start collecting boxes and at least one more fire prism and vyper. Reports have it at a four man bike squad with cannons and a farseer on bike. Other then the farseer going for the double smite, I should be able to hold off most of his weapons and if he does go for the dual smite I know his in charge range and than I can chop him. In the second block I can almost guarentee he'll bring a fire prism to the field which the volkite should make quick work of.

[Focslain]

So let's add some visuals to this project.

 

So for the Steel Wolves knight and armigar I'm using the Iron Wolf parts made by Gadgets Plus on shape ways, the head and feet are shown below

 

 

I also custom up the first ones weapons. Swapping the standard thermal lance for the fusion collider from a ghostkeel and using a more traditional ax instead of the reaper chain-cleaver.

 

 

The carapace weapon was changed a bit and made swappable. A modified scatter laser for a heavy stubber or the normal meltagun.

 

 

Keeping with the odd attachment to xenos weapons, or more precisely the start of it, the weapons for the styrix knight. A mix of xenos tech with the main weapon a modified Tau railgun (Volkite cannon), a Aeldari wraithcannon (graviton crusher), and modified guass blaster (twin rad cleanser).

 

 

Now all is not lost to the heretical xenophile of a iron priest (personal fluff and his got more then a few screws loose) as the weapon section for House Jenius is of the imperial finest and swappable to met the proper needs of the mission. I'm planning to have the battlecannon, avenger cannon as well as the heavy stubber and melta all able to switched out.

 

 

Not seen is that I magnetized the shoulder paldrons of the knight to allow for ease of swapping. Below is the near complete test model for the house scheme. I do have to figure out how I'm going to fit this with the Iron Tiger head I got for the full sized knight.

 

[Focslain]

So I have made my first vow for the ELVI and it's the Armigar Warglaive for the first 250 block of my groups ToG. Here it is primed and ready for painting tomorrow.

 

After this I'm going to finish the Styrix knight, base the Warglaive I did prior, then vow in my other knight as a 598 pts crusader. After that if we haven't gotten a Knight codex yet I'll start painting Dominusi and tech priests for vows as my fellow ToG catchup on the points.

[Focslain]

So here's a WIP for the wolf armigar I'm doing for my first vow.

 

I want to figure out a bit of fluff for it and the knights attached to my wolf companies in general, other then how I got them.

 

Also need a naming scheme for them.

[Focslain]

So the first Armigar is done minus a little clean-up work. Was good enough to use in some games this weekend.

 

I did the 1v1 versus the DE and IF player and the games were as different as night and day.

 

Knight Vs Durkari

 

Knights
Armigar Warglaive - Thermal Lance, Heavy Stubber

 

DE
Haemonculus - Electrocoorisive whip, hexrifle, ichor injector, nightmare doll
5x Wracks - Electrcorrisive whip, liquafier gun
Raider - Dark lance, plus all the options

 

He deployed the wracks in the webway and the Haemonculus in the raider. I got first turn and moved to take my shot at the raider, the thermal lance getting a good seven wound hit, but not enough to one-shot. The return fire wasn't  as effective with the dark lance glancing a pair of wounds. He deployed his wracks near by and failed the charge, losing a wrack to a lucky hit.

 

Turn two the raider was finished and the Haemonculus narrowing escaping (command re-roll on the emergency debarkation). the stubber didn't do anything and I charged into the wracks. I only managed to drop two and he dealt me four wounds in return. At that point I should have taken the hint, but...

 

 

He dis-engaged and his commander shot with no effect. Next turn I managed to round up close to his commander and only score two wounds due to his 4+ FNP, once again I assault in and only deal a wound while he drops two more. The wracks join in and luckly do

nothing while I finish the wracks.

 

In the final round I manage another wound on the Haemonculus but he finishes the warglaive off.

 

Post-battle
Durkari are good in CC, next time shot to death. While he needed 6's to wound, when he did wound they tended to be with high rend multi-damage weapons. It's been a long time since I faced them and played in general. I know in the next round his bringing a talos, but since I'm bring a styrix I'm hoping to do better.

Knight vs Imperial Fists

 

Knights
Armigar Warglaive - Thermal Lance, Meltagun

 

Imperial Fists
Captain in Gravis Armour
6x Primaris Marines - Stalker bolt rifles

 

The IF castled up in the far corner of the field, so the march was on. I got first turn and moved closer, the thermal lance dropping one marine. The return fire was light, while he hit a large number of times only a few wounded and unlike against the Durkari, I managed to make my saves. I was pretty close to on the next turn, dropping two more marines to combined fire, but failed my charge.

 

 

After giving me a volley of bolter fire and wounding me, he charged in, losing one marine to a lucky hit. He got his commander in and managed to deal four more wounds. In his round I chopped the captain in half and then during my round finished the last two marines.

 

 

Post-Battle

What I hoped would happen against the Durkari happened here. But with as few models I'm not surprised. the wracks had a 4++ save to help them while the primaris had no such defense.

 

As a side note the IF and Durkari also fought and the IF player won. It was down to four brutal rounds of CC between the homonculis and captain.

 

Still to come..

 

Tau - No change on his list at least that I have gotten word of. I'm guessing he is going to play like the IF player and castle up, at least he is hitting less and wounding the same, but with four times the shots. It will be best to get in there and wreck what I can.

 

Aldari - I'm looking at four models, farseer on bike and three bikers with cannons. Other then having to worry about the farseer smiting me to death I'm not too worried. Also his smite range is well within my move and charge range. At least this time the Rotate Ion Shield strat will work since his heaviest attack is ranged.

 

Daemons - So this was an odd change, guy is fielding a herald and two slannesh chariots. Like the Durkari I'm going to want to take this one at range. While he can close the gap I should get a few rounds off and hopefully take out one before his able to engage.

 

I've also (re)started work on the knight, I need to get the head, plates and overall details done. Hopefully I'll have it done in the next week or so as well as the base for my other painted warglaive then it's off to work on the 'crusader' for my second vow.

[Charlo]

Ambitious to do a Styrix in plastic, but I like the bits used!

 

Interesting battles with just a single Warglaive, get some bigger ones going now 

[Focslain]

Ambitious to do a Styrix in plastic, but I like the bits used!

 

Interesting battles with just a single Warglaive, get some bigger ones going now 

 

We plan on it. This is an escalating battle, in two weeks we're having a 3v3 with all our forces. Random team selection so this should be interesting.

 

The Styrix was originally a Knight Paladin, but I liked the look of the volkite so much I just changed the class.

 

As a side note I did use the warglaive in a 1750 pts game later that day, attaching it to a space wolf force, it did just fine. 

[Focslain]

So due to the holiday our group's 3v3 is going to be the 20th.

 

This weekend I did manage a game versus the Tau player, who brought less then what I thought he had, but was still close on the points.

 

T'au
Ethereal - Honor blade, hover drone

Strike Team 1 - 5 Fire Warriors
Strike Team 2 - 10 Fire Warriors

Pathfinders - 5 w/markerlights, 1 w/ Rail rifle

 

Knights
Armigar Warglaive - Thermal lance, reaper chain cleaver, heavy stubber

 

Set up was simple, he castled his ethereal and warriors and positioned his pathfinders a bit ahead. Personally would have used the pathfinders scout move to pull them back, but he moved them a tad more forwards.

 

 

He managed to get first turn and lit up my armigar, with marker lights. Managed to score all five hits but did little damage. The volley down field got quite a few hits, but very few wounds and all but one saved. I then moved up, shot at his larger fire warrior unit killing one with the lance, while the stubber dropped a pathfinder before engaging them in melee, dropped three and they managed to hold their ground.

 

He fell the pathfinders back so his firewarriors could fire on the warglaive, with the bork improvement I was in half range of all the rifles. But the shots failed to dent the paint. Embolden by the Tau's lack of punching power I moved closer to the larger fire warrior unit, the lance and stubber dropping three before I leap at them, their supporting fire failing to land a hit. My leap gives me basing on the squad and the ethereal, felling three more fire warriors in the process to no damage in return.

 

 

Once again he falls back, he managed a markerlight hit, the rail rifle continuing to do nothing and in a desperate gamble he starts to use an emp grenade and actually manages two wounds. His ethereal fell back but in a way that I was able to catch him and the other fire warrior squad in a single charge, only managing to drop one of the remaining fire warriors from the prior squad in shooting before engaging the rest. I did an even split and only landed a single blow on the ethereal, which almost killed him. The other squad wasn't lucky and lost two of their numbers.

 

Once again he fell back and used another emp grenade to damage me further, but not enough. I wiped out the remaining two of the large squad via fire, charged and killed his ethereal, then did the same with his pathfinders and the last of the firewarriors.

 

Post Battle:
After review he had less then 250 and could have taken the extra 5 firewarriors and just been fine. I know I got lucky since he could hit, but failed to wound so many times, plus his rail rifle just could not preform as that was the weapon to deal multi-wound damage.

As long as I have good target priority I should be good on him next round too.

 

I got the Styrix done, so off to work on my vow crusader.

Phase Two Intel

Since technically phase one is done we are moving to phase two, just in time for me to finish what I need for it.

 

Knights
I'm taking a Styrix, with the crushing claw it clocks in at exactly 500 pts. As the only model it will be the warlord and unless the Knight codex gives me a better suggestion I'll be using Tenacious Fighter for the 6+ FNP. Also with it's enhanced defenses (4++ ranged, 5+ melee and 5+ regen) it should be able to deal with most things.

 

Drukari
His planning on adding another raider, a talos and I believe more wracks. Other then having to make sure to shoot the talos and raiders I should be ok if he pulls the same drop the wracks via webway thanks to the rad cleanser.

 

Imperial Fist (Primaris)
The fortifications arrive in the form of a bastion. His thinking of using a squad of helbasters, mostly due to me, but we're trying to convince him not to plan on a single player. Honestly since the Deathwatch codex dropped and the pts cost of primaris is no different, just add a few helbasters and at least you get your full CP. As for dealing with him, just going to charge the bastion, hopefully between the volkite and crushing claw I should be able to kick it over and much the primaris inside.

 

Tau
His planning on adding a missile broadside and a fire blade at least. I'd like to see another squad of fire warriors as well as a little fill out. This would give him a battalion and more CP to work with, which yes means more grenades but I think I can weather that. However once the broadside is neutralized via the volkite it's just a walk up and step on the infantry, literally.

 

Not sure on the Chaos player's plans nor the Aeldari, however he did pick up three Vypers so I'm guessing bright lances?

[Stray]

Are those some of the Shapeways parts on the Styrix? How did you get on with them? I've seen them around a fair bit, but haven't as yet heard from anyone as to what they're like to work with.

 

It looks great! I'm all about alternate Styrix heads, the standard one doesn't do it for me :)

[librisrouge]

Just as a heads up, since you're not taking a super-heavy detachment, none of your knights are characters and thus do not get a trait. Still, I look forward to seeing the styrix in action. Its a sweet knight and I dig your model. Love these reports.

[Focslain]

Are those some of the Shapeways parts on the Styrix? How did you get on with them? I've seen them around a fair bit, but haven't as yet heard from anyone as to what they're like to work with.

 

It looks great! I'm all about alternate Styrix heads, the standard one doesn't do it for me

Yes. Just fine, their real easy to use, the guy that designed them knows what his doing and has lots of alternate parts. As for the head specifically below shows how they work. You need some small magnets for them.

 

1. Each head includes a cover piece that fits over the bracket that hold the normal head.

 

2. You glue the magnet into place in the recess created.

 

3. On the back of the heads is a small hole, you might need some green stuff prior as the hole can be deep. The one on my crusader knight (not shown) was pretty shallow. Glue another magnet here.

 

4. And snap, the part is light enough that most magnets will hold.

 

 

He also makes alternate face plates too, just look through his shop.

 

Just as a heads up, since you're not taking a super-heavy detachment, none of your knights are characters and thus do not get a trait. Still, I look forward to seeing the styrix in action. Its a sweet knight and I dig your model. Love these reports.

I know, we were wondering about the warlords for the knights in general and I showed the guy (the drukari player) running this CA2017 about assigning the character trait to a knight in the group and he said just assign it to one for now. Course this was after I fought him, but I haven't made a FNP save yet so.. *shrug*

 

I'm guessing it the same thinking on our removal of the penalty for aux detachments for our first round.

 

Speaking of battle reports, the Aeldari have finally been brought to task.

 

Aeldari

Farseer - Singing spear, jetbike, Psychic powers (Fortune, Excutioner), Fate's Messenger

Windriders x4 - Shuriken cannons

 

vs

 

Knights

Armigar Warglaive - Thermal Lance, Reaper chain cleaver, heavy stubber

 

Since we were in an urban setting, I decided to hide in cover.

He got first turn and moved a little closer, but not enough to target me. After casting Fortune on his windriders he passed the turn. My knight leaped out of hiding, he had placed his farseer in front and knowing the seer's powers were my bane I took the shots. Only to fail to cause any real damage, the thermal lance just glancing him (1 wound). I was too far to charge, but that wouldn't be an issue soon.

 

However it seemed that shuck his resolve as he then failed all three psychic tests (yes that included the re-roll on a smite). His windriders fared better, a pair of piercing shots wounding the knight. He then charged?! Losing a windrider to a lucky thermal lance shot, the farseer joined in the fray. They try valiantly to damage the metal monster but fail. I focus on the farseer but his armour saves him.

 

I debated in splitting my attacks, but the farseer had to die before he could rally his psychic might. I focused my attention on the witch and split it in two, it's fate ended that round. His windriders backed off and caused another wound with shuriken fire.

 

I chased them down, felling two with the lance and dropping the last one with my ax.

 

Post- Battle:

Thank the All Father he botched his psychic assault. It's the one thing I'm worried about in dealing with him. The good news is that if his close enough to use smite then I'll be close enough to engage him in melee where I can do a good bit more straight damage. I'm not sure this game would have gone any different if he tried to kite for that reason. It was just luck and some desperation that gave me the win.

 

To the Aeldari player's credit, he also did a game versus the Drukari player after me and the farseer systematically took him apart. Using the same smite/executioner combo he managed to pass all his tests this time and killed everything minus three wracks.

[Focslain]

So we did our group game over the weekend. The mission was Home Base, twist was regeneration and the teams were:

 

Knights/Tau/Imperial Fist

vs
Aeldari/Drukari/Daemons
 

 

Pretty much the combination I did not want, but we actually did semi well.

 

My team castled over our objective while our opponents charged forward, the tau took a brunt of the fire and the daemons piled onto the Imperial Fists. At that point I moved to go after the enemy base. I wasn't rolling too well, failing to do decent damage until the end.

 

The IF Chapter master (he upgraded via CP) took out the daemons and the wracks near single handed. Even the Tau did admirally by holding thier ground and never failing moral.

 

My knight did take out the raider and the farseer even with thier regenerative powers. Me and the IF player swapping turns until he fell to the homoculus. When the game ended we each had the others base and it was down to me, the homoculus, a wrack, and a jetbike. I had regen'd to seven wounds and the homoculus was a good two turns hard run away. So a draw it was.

I still have to fight the daemon player, but then so does everyone else.

 

The round is set to end in three weeks with another team game. After that I'm not sure how we are doing the end of round three other then our 1v1s will be full games.

 

I'm also continuing my work on the second knight (for the group and my vow), it's not that bad, but I was thinking there would have been more magenta then there is.

 

I'm liking it, though I have to revisit the weapon schemes.
 

[Focslain]

Ok, I'm getting the writing itch again. So figure I'd expand on my own forces fluff. I'm going to go through Mechanicum soon then Titanicus. What I'm wondering is what other books should I grab that focus on Knights and Ad Mech in general?

[frosteldar]

I just finished reading Kingsblade -which focuses on Imperial Knights - and it was really good.  Knightsblade - the second book is also out. 

 

The Forges of Mars series was really good for AdMech in general and it included some Titan legion fluff, but not Knights.

[Focslain]

I just finished reading Kingsblade -which focuses on Imperial Knights - and it was really good.  Knightsblade - the second book is also out. 

 

The Forges of Mars series was really good for AdMech in general and it included some Titan legion fluff, but not Knights.

Thanks, I was hoping to find a few in the audio book format (which these aren't right now), but I'll grab Kingsblade later. 

[Stray]

I just finished reading Kingsblade -which focuses on Imperial Knights - and it was really good.  Knightsblade - the second book is also out. 

 

The Forges of Mars series was really good for AdMech in general and it included some Titan legion fluff, but not Knights.

 

Good to know!

I'd been interested in picking it up for a while, but hadn't heard anything from anyone who had read it.

[frosteldar]

There are also many short stories about AdMech in the Black Library, and I noticed one about Knights named "Becoming" - it is actually a prequel to the Knightsblade series. Have not read it yet, as I just saw it yesterday, but should be good.  The "Becoming" is the event/celebration when the Knight and rider attempt to bond.

[Focslain]

There are also many short stories about AdMech in the Black Library, and I noticed one about Knights named "Becoming" - it is actually a prequel to the Knightsblade series. Have not read it yet, as I just saw it yesterday, but should be good.  The "Becoming" is the event/celebration when the Knight and rider attempt to bond.

 

I found it and it's actually exactly what I need as all the pilots of my knights are replacements (fluff wise). Too bad it's digital only... only $4 though. *sigh and pulls out wallet*

[frosteldar]

Yeah, I am planning to get it and some other stories too, just need some time to sit down and do it!  :)

[Aothaine]

There are also many short stories about AdMech in the Black Library, and I noticed one about Knights named "Becoming" - it is actually a prequel to the Knightsblade series. Have not read it yet, as I just saw it yesterday, but should be good.  The "Becoming" is the event/celebration when the Knight and rider attempt to bond.

 

Ohh dang! I'm going to have to pick up all these books. I really hope they have it in big print.

[Focslain]

Well that was a bust. Seems England is still black listed hard for my bank, two attempts get me a hole to order and both times the system auto closes.

 

I hope this short story get put in a collection I can get locally later. 

[Aothaine]

Well that was a bust. Seems England is still black listed hard for my bank, two attempts get me a hole to order and both times the system auto closes.

 

I hope this short story get put in a collection I can get locally later. 

 

Dang.. that kind of sucks. Sorry to hear that. Are you able to purchase it on iTunes? Also I forgot to mention that you're doing great! I thought taking one knight or even the smaller version would be horribly disadvantaged but it seems like you're doing decently well.

 

Wait... you live in the USA and you can't make purchases from the UK? Have you called your bank yet? Maybe you can order the book from a GW store in the US or from a bookstore?

[Focslain]

 

Well that was a bust. Seems England is still black listed hard for my bank, two attempts get me a hole to order and both times the system auto closes.

 

I hope this short story get put in a collection I can get locally later. 

 

Dang.. that kind of sucks. Sorry to hear that. Are you able to purchase it on iTunes? Also I forgot to mention that you're doing great! I thought taking one knight or even the smaller version would be horribly disadvantaged but it seems like you're doing decently well.

 

 

I don't use Itunes, but it's ok. While I know it's not a sanction action I can see if I might 'find' it elsewhere.

 

As for the games, yeah it's doing ok for now. I was stupid when I faced the Drukari player but learned. The 750 phase it going to be telling as we switch to normal games 1v1 and I'm only going to have two models, maybe three if the new mini-knight kits gives me inspiration.

 

I really want to play in the IF player soon this round as I haven't assaulted a castle before. This is going to be fun. 

[Aothaine]

 

I don't use Itunes, but it's ok. While I know it's not a sanction action I can see if I might 'find' it elsewhere.

 

As for the games, yeah it's doing ok for now. I was stupid when I faced the Drukari player but learned. The 750 phase it going to be telling as we switch to normal games 1v1 and I'm only going to have two models, maybe three if the new mini-knight kits gives me inspiration.

 

I really want to play in the IF player soon this round as I haven't assaulted a castle before. This is going to be fun. 

 

 

I wonder if taking three of the Armigers might be better at 750. It seemed to be a workhorse at 250.