First games of black templars (and, uh, 1st games of 9th)

[templargdt]

Well, my wife insisted I go out to the FLGS for the monthly 3 round tournament yesterday.  I'm nowhere close to even finishing building my Templars army, much less painting it, so I grabbed a bunch of my Blood Ravens models, threw together a list an hour before the event and made the drive.  I used Uphold The Honor of the Emperor the entire tournament as my Vow.

 

My list:
HQ
Marshall, Jump Pack, Thunder hammer, Storm Shield (Rites of War)

Reiver LT

Primaris Chaplain (Master of Sanctity, Wise Orator, Reliquary of Granthamor, +1 A litany, 5+ FNP Litany)

 

Troops
10 Intercessors (autobolts, power fist)

10 Intercessors (autobolts, power fist)

5 Infiltrators

5 Infiltrators

 

Elites

Judicar

Primaris Apothecary (Chief Apothecary, Master Healer)

5 Terminators

5 Terminators

10 Vanguard Vets with Jump Packs (Thunder hammer, 9 Power Swords)

Primaris Ancient (Banner of the Emperor)

 

Heavy Support

Thunderfire Cannon

Obviously this is not a great list for the Black Templars, but it's what I had handy and nicely painted.  I ended up playing the following:
1- Imperial Knights (loss, 60-80).  He had 3 large Knights (Giant harpoon shooting knight, two forge world knights I'd never seen before) and 4 mini knights with a thermal cannon and chainsword.  I tried to play to the objectives and had 4 models left at the end of T5.  

 

2- Tyranids (win, 50-30).  He had Swarmlord, huge genestealer leader, a big psychic bug, an 18 wound huge bug, a Neurothrope, a unit of hive guard, a unit of warriors, two large units of genestealers, two units of ravenors, and two units of little swarming things.  I smoked most of his army by the end of T3 when we ran out of time.

 

3- Chaos Knights (win, 85-35).  He had three big knights and four wardog shooty mini knights.  One big knight was battle cannon/avenger, one was pure close combat, one was thermal cannon/chainsword.  I didn't have much left at the end but he had a single wardog left at the end of T3.

 

I came in 5th overall, so for my first few games of Warhammer in over 2 years, I feel okay about that.  Observations:

- Thunderfire cannon is no longer any good, especially on the smaller board size, which was hard to adjust to.  120 points is way too much.  I doubt I would pay 80 for it with the current rules set.

 

- Infiltrators seem a bit over priced, but with the uphold vow and smokescreen are surprisingly resilient.  I plopped a squad of 5 on an objective and they held out through turn 5 tangling with a wardog mini-knight.  Vehicles shooting into close combat was highly annoying.

 

- Chaplains are incredible, especially the ability to pick any vow and recite it for 1 CP with the MOS.  Absolute must take, incredibly flexible.  The +1 A vow combined with the +1 to wound vow is an absolute blender.  Bike Chaplain with MOS will be in every list.

 

- Thunder hammer on the Captain without the native rerolls is meh.  I'll be swapping out for another weapon that isn't -1 to hit.

 

- 10 man intercessor with Power fist did pretty good, even against all these Knights.  With using Uphold, Transhuman, and Gene wrought Might, I managed to punch one to death with some Terminator help.  When I fought Tyranids, using the 'any vow' strat, grabbing +1 to wound in shooting, and then the double shoot strat, I cleaned out a large amount of Nids.  Highly satisfying to see a huge pile of genestealers get picked up off the table, hate those things.

 

- 5 Man Terminators are meh.  I kept trying to use them as back field grabbers but was desperate for their help as I was getting knights and huge Nids shoved in my face.  The shooting didn't really do much.  If had them as a squad of 10 and used them like I did the Intercessors, maybe that would have been different.

 

- Rites of War never came into play once, I was too busy punching things to death mid board. 

 

- Granthamor relic was great versus nids, I ended up causing 5 MWs on Swarmlord with it, and then killed him with the help of the Judicar.

 

- Speaking of the Judicar, his ability is absolutely clutch and I would pay 120 for him easily.  He won me both games versus Knights making a huge knight fight last and allow me to smash him first.  I'm taking the relic that has the same ability every time.

 

- Apothecary is great, brought back many an Intercessor for free.  When I get my assault terminators done, he's probably rolling with them since I think deepstriking on these smaller boards really isn't needed.

 

- Ancient was surprisingly good, I killed a bunch of stuff with it after losing models.  The relic banner never did anything for me.  

 

- My clever plan of using the Reiver LT to take away obsec from an enemy unit never even came close to being needed or possible.  My other plan of using guerilla ops to drop my Infiltrators into his back area never came in either, as they were busy holding on to an objective or keeping deepstriking tyranids out of my DZ.  

 

- Picking out secondaries was really tough, I need to study them and have a pre-game plan for which ones I want to take against various enemies and board set ups.  I did in the Chaos Knight game pick "Bathe your blade in the blood of the foe" and scored the full 15 by smoking a Chaos Knight with my Marshall, which was highly satisfying.

 

Overall, it seemed like my games were basically trying to jump on to objectives and then punch the other guys big scary units to death first.  Not exactly high level chess, but it was still fun to play again.

[Medjugorje]

nice to hear that. Would perfectly fit in the "hall of honour" threat.

[templargdt]

Mods can move the thread that's fine.

[Tiger9gamer]

Well you made me start eyeing up the Judicar so good job! I may have to bite the bullet and pick one up. He would be amazing in an impulsor with a squad of blade guard and a marshal!

[Tokugawa]

If you play judicar you'd better purchase the 6 inches intervention trait for him. For obvious reason.

[Tiger9gamer]

If you play judicar you'd better purchase the 6 inches intervention trait for him. For obvious reason.

 oh I forgot about that trait! That sounds fun! I just gave him a master-crafted Relic blade so I could have 2 blade of judgements in that list. instant "nope" button!

[templargdt]

If you play judicar you'd better purchase the 6 inches intervention trait for him. For obvious reason.

I honestly found him perfectly fine stock.  I kept him next to the unit I wanted him with and when they got into assault he was close enough to use the lantern.