Weekend Batreps - mono admech (no knights!)

[DanPesci]

So its been a bit quiet around here recently, so thought Id add a quick report from the 2 games ive had this weekend against my mates new guard army. 2k points a side

 

My army list comprison of the following:

 

Battallion 1 (stygies, servitor maniple)

 

HQ

 

Dominus - Warlord (reroll all hits in CC trait)

Dominus - Field Commander (servitor maniple shtick)

 

6x Breachers (arc rifle/hydro claw)

6x Breachers (arc rifle/hydro claw)

5x Vanguard (2x Plasma)

 

Servitors x4

 

Infiltrators x5 Goad/Uzi

Infiltrators x5 Goad/Uzi

 

Kastellan robots x2 (full phosphor)

 

 

Batallion 2 (stygies)

 

Engineseer

Engineseer

 

5x Rangers (2 arqebus)

5x Rangers (2 arqebus)

5x Rangers (2 arqebus)

5x Vanguard (2x Plasma)

 

Infiltrators x5 sword/carbine

Fulgurite Electropriests x12 

 

Onager - Neutron twinstubber

Onager - Neutron twinstubber

Onager - Icarus Array

 

Note in the second game i shifted some points around, removing the 3rd onager and instead adding in a proxid termite drill which my electropriests and warlord rode around in)

 

 

 

 

He brought an imperial guard list (brigade), based on the list of the recent LVO winner. Cant remember exactly how this was setup but it was essentially:

 

 

- Commander (tons of orders)

- Subcommander (more orders)

- Straken

- Priest

 

8x 10 man catachan squads

Mortar team (3x mortars)

 

2 Wyverns (the mortar tanks?)

2 Hellhounds

 

9 bullgryns with mixed shields 

 

5 rough riders 

 

Castellan Knight with volcano cannon/plasma death

 

 

Game 1 was maelstrom with the one where you choose which objectives an opponent keeps.

Game 2 was maelstrom with strategic gamble.

 

With his list being based on a recent tournament winner, id thought I was in for a very tough time, however this wasnt the case.

 

Now, in both games i ended up with first turn, which is always an advantage. However in both i played very aggresivelly. My kastellans were placed right out the front in a fire lane, ready to go into protector protocol first turn (hiding 80+ guardsmen from them being virtually impossible).

 

Similarly my breachers and electropriest were placed on my front lines. The 9" stygies moves then meant these guys could be up either onto objectives or behind LOS blocking cover before the game even began. (in the 2nd game, this meant the drill + priests and dominus being halfway across the board which is nasty).

 

I thought his mortars would be a huge danger in both games, but a combination of the -1 to hit stygies rules, and units either being in cover or having shroudsalm made these fairly redundant..(wyverns only managing to kill 1-2 vanguard a shot for example). In the first game he landed 3 wyvern shots on my electropriest unit, but -1 to hit and some decent 5+/5+ rolling meant he only killed half of them.

 

 

First turn of both games i concentrated on the hellhounds and the bullgryn, with my kastellans lighting up guard units. The bullgryn are REALLY tough to shift, but breachers are excellent at it (S6 AP-2 D3 weapons). In both games the bullgryn had 4-6 models removed by shooting, and were then charged by either servitors or priests to finish them off.

 

The breachers make such a good screen they are quickly becoming my MVP.  3+/5++ is great, with aqusition at all costs they get 2+/4++ and the hydraulic claws do serious work in CC when the reroll hits dominus is nearby.

 

In both games my infiltrators dropped into the backfield to kill mortars/score objectives & linebreaker.

 

Although the castellan knight is super scary, I mainly ignored it in both games after quickly realising that the 3++ from its iron bulwark/rotate iron shields made it an utter tank. But once other threats/scoring units were dealt with, the knight was brought down by a combination of onagers, arc rilfes, and servitors hitting it in CC.

 

It didn't really help my opponent that his list is actually quite CC orientated for a guard force...tons of catchan bodies hitting on S4 made no impact when running into walls of breacher squads who have 4 attacks and a 2+ save due to acquisition at all cost. His bullgryns, which would have been dangerous, were nullified both games by me getting first turn and killing them first.

 

 

Game one id essentially tabled my opponent by turn 4 (with me being way out in the lead points wise).

 

Game two went even faster, with him conceding by turn 3 when he only had 2 wyverns left on the board.

 

MVP overall goes to my breacher units who did serious work/scored objectives/punched face both games.

 

Special mention goes to the electropriest in game 2. They single handedly held up a flank whilst taking out 3 squads of guardsmen and half a unit of bullgryns.

 

No pics im afraid (our armies are only half painted anyway so not so pretty to look at just now), but 2 wins for mono-admech with no knight suppport....a good weekends showing!

[Charlo]

Nice write ups and lists - just the sort of thing I'm currently looking for!

 

I think Breachers might just be one of our best units right now, they're so cheap and bring silly-good weapons for a TROOPS choice!!!

 

One question I have is about the basic servitors, how do you keep them safe? Surely a savvy opponent just nukes them, then that is the regeneration gone for the other units from the Detachment rules?

 

Also, how many points is this.... 2K?

[DanPesci]

Nice write ups and lists - just the sort of thing I'm currently looking for!

 

I think Breachers might just be one of our best units right now, they're so cheap and bring silly-good weapons for a TROOPS choice!!!

 

One question I have is about the basic servitors, how do you keep them safe? Surely a savvy opponent just nukes them, then that is the regeneration gone for the other units from the Detachment rules?

 

Also, how many points is this.... 2K?

 

Sorry, this was at 2k aye

 

yeah i love the breachers when they are run as the servitor maniple. I feel a lot of people are going for the destroyers instead a lot of the time due to their obvious firepower.... but for their price and what they can do/hold...i think breachers are a much better unit (as long as you have other units doing the heavy lifitng on the anti tank - eg. neutron onagers). The arc rifle is really versatile, and the hydraulic claws are brutal if you can get reroll to hits in there. And they are TROOPS!

 

Combined with the stygies 9" move, AAAC strat, and -1 to hit from stygies...they become real hard to shift. Anything getting within 12" of them then runs the risk of being charged if they dont wipe the unit.

 

 

With the standard servitors. Good question. In all my games so far ive just kept them out of line of sight (me and my mate play the ITC rule whereby ground floors of ruins block LoS which helps).

 

As far as im aware the dominus only needs to be within 6" of a servitor and 6" of a kataphron unit. So its actually not too hard to keep that coherency whilst keeping the servitors back out of LoS (with the dominus base, they can be 14" back from your kataphron sqaud and still be used).

 

The main issue they will have is anything with indirect fire. The stygies -1 to hit helps here, as does shroudpsalm/natural cover.

 

Target saturation certainly helps....eg. with 12 kataphrons and 12 electropriests surging up the board with 9" stygies moves (and kastelans, onagers, and 3 sniper squads in the mix)...most opponents will ignore the 4 servitors sitting out of sight at the back. Even if they do go for them...thats firepower directed away from the scoring units of kataphrons/vanguard/rangers anyway.

 

Also, anything deepstriking to get to them is coming in turn 2, by which point theyve probably already brought 1 kataphron back and have made their points back anyway.

 

I was thinking about maybe adding a 2nd squad of 4 servitors in though just incase someone brings a load of mortars etc...but as ive never had to bring back more than 4 kataphrons in a game it does seem a bit of a waste (although it would spread the regen bubble further across a wide setup)