The Sacramentum Crusade

[Brother Sidonius]

Greetings Battlebrothers! 

I've been meaning to create a topic for my Crusade for a while now and after doing rather well in the early rounds of a local tournament I thought I'd start things off with a battle report. I'll also have photos and narratives to share in the future but thought I'd keep it simply starting off. The Sacramentum Crusade is a Black Templars force that only includes firstborn units so if you're interested in seeing old school space marines taking on the 9th edition meta (at my local game store) then read on!

 

Local Tournament (1250 pt)

I've only ever played in two tournaments, one at the end of 8th edition which resulted in a 3rd place and one at the beginning of 9th which somehow resulted in a 1st place, so although I've had success I'm not very experienced at playing in the tournament scene. The tournament I'm currently playing in is also quite different to the last two so it's been an interesting time.

 

Games are only 1250 points and each round of the tournament lasts two weeks. During that time you play one game at the store and then can alter your list by up to 400 points. Typically I bring a mechanised infantry list with two landraiders but since 9th edition is all about holding objectives and I predicted that the other players would be building lists to counter my Crusade, I opted instead to bring a Black Tide list with some sneaky Psychic support.

 

Round 1

The mission: Overrun (GT 2020)

 

This game happened 3 weeks ago but I'll try to give an accurate and concise recount of what happened.

 

The List: Ordo Malleus Inquisitor, Marshal, Chaplain (Master of Sanctity), 20 man crusader squad, 5x 5 man crusader squads and a 5 man terminator squad with thunder hammers and stormshields.

 

The plan was simple; hold all the objectives and don't get tabled. My Chaplain would run up the board with the termies while the Captain and Inquisitor would run up the board with the 20 man crusader squad while the the rest of the army went for the objectives. The chaplain would give the termies reroll hits and a 5+++ FnP from Litany of Divine Protection and the Inquisitor would give the crusaders a 5++ save. The chaplain was also running the Aurillian Shroud and the Fervent Acclimation litany which would hopefully allow me to weather first turn. All good ideas but none of it was helpful against the list I ended up facing.

 

The Opponent: Iron Warriors. A Disco Lord, 10 man cultists squad, 3 Decimators with Soulburners, 2x 5 man Havocs with chaincannons.

 

Oh no. With a list like that my opponent would be able deleting a couple of units every turn and I'd be struggling to cross no-mans-land to do anything about it. But I am a Son of Dorn and my resolve did not waver before the hated foe. If I could run away with the Victory Points before I was inevitably tabled there was a chance I could win. The Iron Warriors got the first turn and decimated (get it?) my poor infantry, however they underestimated the effectiveness of our 5+++ FnP against mortal wounds. Nearly every unit in my army took casualties but none of them were wiped out. I still had a chance! During my turn 1, I moved up the board and managed to tie up all 3 Decimators with my Crusader Squad and set up the rest of my CQB squads for a turn two charge. Then I realised that I hadn't performed the raise the banners action for my secondary. An amateur mistake, I'd just have to perform it next turn. Turn 2 for the Iron Warriors my opponent once against split fired and failed to remove a unit. The Disco Lord charged the Crusaders but failed to wipe them out. In my turn 2 I remembered to do my actions, my Marshal and Chaplain charged into the Disco Lord taking it down, my Crusaders who had advanced up the flank charged the cultists and took an objective, but my termies failed to charge the Decimators. It was the end of turn 2 and I still hadn't lost a unit, had scored max on the primary and my opponent had only scored 5 VP. Somehow things were going as planned! Then my opponent stopped split firing. But it was already too late. I had the board control I needed to score all my agendas and it'd take too long to stop my racking up the victory points. At the end of the game I had a one terminator on 1 wound and one initiate on 1 wound but took the win.

 

Round 1 Results: 60 VP to 42 VP.

Black Templars victory!

 

Round 2:

The mission: Sweep and Clear (GT 2020)

 

The List: Ordo Malleus Inquisitor, Marshal, Chaplain (Master of Sanctity), 10 man Crusader Squad (5 Initiates and 5 Neophytes), 3x 5 man Crusader Squads, 2 man Company Veteran Squad, 2x Contemptors, 5 man Terminator squad with thunder hammers and stormshields.

 

After getting lucky in Round 1 I stopped to rethink my list. I only had 400 points to play with so I couldn't do anything too drastic but there were two specific areas that my list was lacking in: mobility and anti-armour. Enter the Contemptor Dreadnoughts. Their 8" movement would open up more options for early charges and their strength 14, damage 3 fists would make short work of most vehicles. The plan was basically the same but this time I'd have the Terminators and Contemptors running straight at the enemy with the Crusader Squads going for the objectives. By the time my opponent had dealt with the terminators and the dreadnoughts I'd hopefully have the board control to run away with VP again.

 

The opponent:

Astra Militarum (Custom Regiment). Tank Commander, Leman Russ Executioner and 2x Manticores.

Storm Troopers (Lambdan Lions) 2x Tempestus Primes, 2x 10 man Storm Trooper Squads, 1x 5 man Storm Trooper squad, and 2x Command Squads.

 

Secondaries: Direct Assault (the mission specific secondary), Domination, and Assassinate.

I was confident that I could get maximum VP for Direct Assault and Domination but could only get a maximum of 9 VP for Assassinate. In hindsight, Deploy Scramblers might have been a better choice but I find Assassinate very reliable.

 

Round 2!

Battle Round 1: My opponent and I both deployed right up on our deployment zones and hoped to get first turn. With a maximum no-mans-land of 18", this was a risky deployment that cost my opponent the game. He also put his command squads and a tempestus prime into reserves which arrived too late to save the game because I got first turn. During my Movement phase I left a Fire Support Crusader Squad in my back lines to stop the command squads from stealing it later and advanced everything but the Contemptors up the board. I then played The Emperor's Will on the terminators but rolled a 2 for the advance which I re-rolled into a 1. Sometimes it be like that. My contemptors and termies only needed 8" charges but only one contemptor made it into combat. That was really unlucky considering our Chapter Tactic reroll but at least it took out a few more troopers. At the end of turn 1, I controlled 3 objectives including the one in the centre granting me 6 VP on secondaries and setting me up for max VP on the Primary next turn.

 

On my opponents turn he wounded a Contemptor, wounded a terminator and removed the 10 man Crusader Squad, the Company Veterans and my Marshal. Unfortunately, due to bad positioning, I'd left those units that were killed out of range of the Aurillian Shroud and my opponent punished me for it.

 

Battle Round 2: I immediately scored 15 VP on the primary and once again advanced everything except my Contemptors and played The Emperor's Will on my terminators. One of the Contemptors also made it into combat with a Manticore in the back lines but failed to kill it and my termies made an easy charge into a leman russ, which they killed. They then consolidated into the tank commanders taking control of the objective in my opponents deplyment zone. This was HUGE. At the end of turn 2 I held all 5 objectives on the board scoring me 3 more VP for Domination and 5 more VP for Direct Assault. 

 

On my opponents turn they scored 0 for the Primary. Then their reserves arrived in my backlines in an attempt to steal more objective. I, of course, played Auspex Scan on the Fire Support squad I'd left there for such an occasion and removed one of the command squads. The Fire Support squad was then removed by over-charged, rapid firing, -4 AP plasma guns but failed to wound anything with the tank commander, manticore and remaining troopers.

 

At the end of the turn we stopped and did the maths and there was no way the imperial guard could come back from the position they were in. It was also very likely that at the end of my turn 3 I would have tabled my opponent so he conceded. The (definitely traitor) guardsmen were defeated and the Sacramentum Crusade was onto round 3 of the tournament! Rather than under-estimating our 5+++ FnP, this time my opponent had under-estimated how ability to pull off long charges. The Contemptors also performed exceptionally well, absorbing a ridiculous number of melta gun shots.

 

Round 2 Results: 100 VP to 4 VP

Black Templars victory!

 

Upcoming Round 3

It's still a couple of weeks before the next game but I've got high hopes for the Sacramentum Crusade. Each game I made mistakes but was able to learn from them and perform better in my next game. I've also made some changes to the list, replacing the Inquisitor with an Apothecary, replacing the 5 Neophytes with another 5 man Crusader Squad, replacing the Chaplain with a Castellan and upgrading my Marshal to a Chapter Master. My opponent is going to be a Space Wolves player who has also gone undefeated in the tournament and is bringing Primaris marines. Looking at the options Primaris Space Wolves get, I'm facing an army with superior datasheets, way more Stratagems and better Chapter Tactics, but with careful positioning and some blessed dice rolls I think I can take them on!

 

Hopefully I remember my camera so I can create a more interesting and detailed battle report. Anyway, wish me luck!

[Marshal Mattias]

Great stuff! I'm looking forward to more :)

[Brother Sidonius]

I'm back with that final battle report of the tournament. I know I promised photos and a more interesting report this time but I was a bit under the weather on the day so didn't end up bringing my camera. Sorry! I hope it's still an enjoyable report to read anyway :) 

 

Round 3:

The mission: Surround and Destroy

 

The List (Black Templars): http://www.bolterandchainsword.com/topic/370435-firstborn-black-templars-1250pt/ (not sure how to do hyperlinks so hopefully that works!)

 

The opponent (Space Wolves): Terminator Librarian, Bjorn, 2x Intercessor Squads, Invictus Warsuit, 5 man terminator squad, 2x 3 man Thunderwolf Cavalry

 

Secondaries: Cut Off the Head, Engage on all Fronts, Raise the Banners

 

Game Summary

I had a plan and I had my army. This final round of the tournament was going to be the hardest one yet and I had everything I needed to take the win and defend my title as Champion. Battles are won or lost in the deployment step and I needed to be on top of my game. Unfortunately, I forgot my brain and did a lot of dumbs. I had a solid plan to counter my Space Wolf opponent but as I mentioned I wasn't 100% on the day and I forgot the plans I'd made as soon as we started. I wouldn't remember them until turn 2. 

 

The Space Wolves deployed exactly as I expected; hyper aggressive. The intercessors were left on the back objectives, bjorn, the librarian and the terminators deployed in the centre, the thunderwolf cavalry took the flanks and the invictus suit was 9" from my deployment zone. He spread his forces too thinly and left himself open to counter charges thanks to my counter deployment. If I had counter deployed that is. Instead of picking a flank to break so I could sweep through the battlefield, as I've done in every previous game, I castled all my forces together in the centre of my deployment zone. And with that single laps in judgement I'd secured victory for my opponent.

 

Perhaps I could have recovered if I had secured first turn but unfortunate i lost the roll off and the space wolves swept forward and controlled 5/6 of the objectives at the end of the turn. I moved to counter charge but only my terminators made the counter charge (even with +1 and a re-roll!). For the rest of the game the terminators traded blows with a squad of thunderwolf cavalry failing to kill them and take the objective. Instead of removing the invictus and a squad of thunderwolf cavalry from the game and secure 3/6 of the objectives, I killed 0 units and still only held 1 objective. 

 

At the end of space wolves turn two, the Space Wolves held all 6 objectives. I attempted another counter charge and hoped my terminators would kill the last thunderwolf (they didn't) but at the end of my turn 2 I still held 0 objectives. We looked at the best case scenario and there was no possible way for me to make a come back so we called it there. The Space Wolves gamble of an aggressive deployment had payed off and head swept through my weak franks rather than me sweeping through his like I had planned. Bad deployment followed by bad luck left me no chance.

 

I still got 2nd place in the tournament so no complaint from me but I would've liked to have won again. I'd proved to myself that I was capable of winning thanks to my previous performances but alas! In future I'm going to pop a Berocca before my tournament games so I don't forget my game plans as easily!

 

Final Score

Space Wolves: 84

Black Templars: 15