Black Legion Gunline in 11th

[techsoldaten]

Taking a look at 11th edition rules, thinking about resurrecting the Black Legion gunline I ran in 8th.
 

Abaddon - 285 pts
 

Daemon Prince with Wings - 180 pts
 

Chaos Terminator Squad - 180 pts

• 5 Terminators
• Abaddon's bodyguard
• Power fists / chainfist / heavy weapon as desired

Helbrute - 130 pts

• Twin lascannon
• Missile launcher

 

 

Cultists - 90 pts

• 20 Cultists

Cultists - 90 pts

• 20 Cultists

Cultists - 90 pts

• 20 Cultists

Cultists - 50 pts

• 10 Cultists

Cultists - 50 pts

• 10 Cultists

Cultists - 50 pts

• 10 Cultists
   

Havocs x 3 - 125 pts each

• 4× Lascannon

 

Chaos Predator x 3 - 135 pts each

• Predator twin lascannon
• 2× Lascannon
• Havoc launcher

 

Total: 1,995 pts

What I liked about this list is I could mostly line it up on my own table edge and shoot up opponents from range. While lascannons are no longer 60", I can deploy at 6" and still limit opponents to their own table edge / obscuring terrain if they want to keep them protected. The Havocs and Preds would get lethal and sustained hits from Abaddon and the Helbrute while the cultists screen everything out. Deployment would span about a 22" wide region in my deployment zone, covering a couple objectives. This would make it hard for anything to deep strike in my deployment zone. The Daemon Prince and the Terminators are there to act as beatsticks for anything that gets past the screens. 

The point of this list is to abuse range with high target saturation, allowing me to take out the biggest threats at range and force opponents to deal with a mass of bodies contesting the objectives I don't already control. While the performance of the list would likely drop in situations where I don't go first, it's not a terrible situation - as long as I have a few clear firing lanes, I pretty much don't need to move the army to do damage.

Have been considering hard counters. Dark Eldar Scourges with Dark Lances come to mind, along with mass Wardog spam. Am not really concerned about Orks the way I once was, the better part of a mob can be taken out if thing go wrong. Not really worried about Custodes the way I once was, low model counts with incredible saves are still not invulnerable to focus fire. Big difference fielding 90 cultists versus 60. 

Looking at current tournament lists, I don't see so many hard counters as stiff challenges. The Necron list with 4 C'Tan seems like a bad matchup but not a steamroller. The worst Tau list I could find was Five Crisis suits with 2 Sunforge and 2 Starscythe and 2×2 rail Broadsides, which would mean a lot of shooting at different angles to contend with. Not saying the other tournament winners are easy to handle, but not seeing the lists that would automatically break my core mechanics. Even if Abaddon and the Helbrute go down, there's still enough ways to get sustained and lethal through dark pacts / VotLW / various stratagems that the gunline remains lethal.

Thoughts?

[abaumann]

I think covering the board with cultists could be beneficial for some dispositions and not as much for others.  Additionally, with my limited time in 11th, I can say that firing lanes are not as effective in this edition if you are trying to target infantry in cover due to the 15” rule. You may run into a situation where you don’t have good targets for that many lascannons, and good positioning from your opponent could make them useless for several turns. Also, with a lot of armies having access to -1 to wound as a defensive measure, that means your lascannons might be wounding on 5s on the bigger targets which is not great. One bad round of shooting could cause you the game, depending on what your opponent is doing with their units you aren’t trying to take out. This army would be fun to play against because it would be fun trying to chew through that many cultists, and would be fun to play in games where it’s effective! However, in order to give yourself a little more flexibility, I would consider dropping a squad or two of cultists, a predator, and a squad of havocs for some other types of firepower, such as a Defiler, maybe a forgefiend, etc if you have these models. Your success will probably be highly dependent on which detachment you’re running, so which one are you planning to run?

Edited September 10 by abaumann

[Dr_Ruminahui]

Its an interesting list, but I think it would struggle on 11th ed standard (aka tournament) layouts, where sight lines over 18" are quite limited.  Still, I'm interested in hearing how things go for you.

[techsoldaten]

Have not yet played 11th, still learning the new rules. I have all the models, used to run this in 8th. Will let you know how it turns out.

For detachments, thinking Veterans of the Long War and Devotees of Destruction.

WRT the hidden rule and LOS, nothing says the army can't move. 3 Predators and 3 squads of Havocs aren't exactly a huge footprint, I used to do this with Legionnaires instead of Havocs and could mostly handle terrain.
 
Trick is to outrange / outgun in each exchange while keeping screens. As long as I get 3 or 4 good turns of shooting, games will be interesting. 

[abaumann]

@techsoldaten

curious about your success! Let us know how it goes. I know I’d be scared of that many lascannons if I’m not running a horde army.  

[techsoldaten]

First game was against an Ork Squighog list. This was my first time playing 11th and first time facing Ork Squighogs in any form. Forgive me for getting some of the names wrong.

The opponent's' list had Ghazgull Thrakka, a squad of Lootas, a mob of 20 Boys, several squads of Gretchin, the new walker from the boxed set, and 3 units of Squighogs - looked like 2 units of 8 and a unit of 4 plus at least 3 bosses mixed in. 

We deployed using Dawn of War. He placed most of his stuff 12 inches from the table edge. I kept most of mine as close as possible to the table edge, Predators were behind Abaddon and the Helbrute. There was a large ruin in the middle of the board which affected my deployment of the Cultists, they were split to the right and left with the Daemon Prince in between. 

He went first and ran up with his hogs. Was surprised to learn they advance and move about 20 inches. I did nothing my first turn, just adjusted screens to make it hard for him to consolidate. The second turn, he charged the Cultists with 3 units of Hogs, wiping out 2 of the 10x squads and reducing a 20x squad by about 12 models. His boys moved up with Ghaz to where they could get around the ruin in the next turn. While I wasn't following objectives very closely, he had gretchen covering them and a unit of Lootas positioned around the middle objective.

For my second turn, had my Cultists fall back, then the lascannons gunned down all of the Hogs. There were 2 bosses on Squigosuaruses left with a few wounds each after the shooting, the remaining cultists and the Daemon Prince were able to finish them off. It went by quickly.

For his third turn, he was able to charge the Daemon Prince with Ghazghul and his Boyz mob. They killed the Daemon Prince and consolidated into a Cultist squad. The Lootas and Gretchin stayed put. For my part, it made sense to break up the gunline. I moved the Predators off to the left, had the Havocs stay put and moved up Abaddon and the Helbrute for a charge. Shooting from Lascannons and autopistols wiped out the Boys and did a couple wounds to Ghaz. He shrugged off a lot with his a 4+ save. Abaddon took him out on the charge. The Predators were able to shoot up the Ork walker which had been making it's way up the left side.

The rest of the game was my Predators shooting up Lootas and Gretchin while the rest of the army moved up the board. He had a squad of gretchen on the board at the end of the game.

So... interesting test against an army I had no experience with. Pretty much everything went wrong. My list was designed to abuse range, all the fighting happened close in. Deployment was not favorable to me, the opponent was incredibly fast, and I had to go a turn without shooting (which is a big deal for a gunline.) It was my first game with 11th edition, did not take advantage of any stratagems / special rules interactions that might have given me a bonus. There was a moment during the second turn where I genuinely wondered if I was about to get tabled, and it's very possible that would have happened if he'd been able to get his walker into position. 

Basically, the theme of this initial test was "the screens held and he had no answers for the rest of the army." 

[abaumann]

@techsoldatengreat report! Thanks for sharing. Sounds like your plan was effective overall. Orks can be pretty difficult to deal with.  Nice work navigating the aggressive plays from your opponent.

[Dr_Ruminahui]

Sounds like your game was a pretty good proof of principle.  That said, a lot of the stuff you stated (no shooting turn 1, turn 2 [or earlier] charges) are really just features of 11th ed., so I think you should put them more in the "that's the way it is now" rather than "things lined up against me" column.  Did you guys use 11th ed dispositions and scoring?  If so, you'll want to put some thought into what disposition works best with this army and how best to score it - in this edition, its pretty easy against to lose against assault armies - even if you manage to survive, they can hold you in you deployment zone for a couple of turns (referred to as "being jailed" among 40K youtubers), which can really depress your scoring.

[techsoldaten]

Thank you for the kind comments. My army's disposition is Take and Hold. 

Played another game last night, this time against a Custodes list. He had a Shield Captain with a squad of 3 jetbikes, 2 squads of 3 jetbikes, 3 squads of 6 Alarus Terminators, and a Sisters of Battle squad. 

He went first, kept his Terminators in reserve and moved up with his jetbikes. We had a ruin in the middle of the table, he had 2 squads of bikes coming on the left and one on the right. The bikes on the left were able to shoot, he advanced with the ones on the right. They took out the Daemon Prince and did 4 wounds on a Predator first turn before failing a charge into the cultists.

In my half of the first, lascannons destroyed 1 of the bike squads and 1 bike from another before he used a strategem to move his bikes behind the building. But he was still close enough to my cultists that I was able to use the Grenades strategem to deal another 4 mortal wounds and take out another bike. I did not try for a charge because I wanted to keep the screens intact - there was really no where for his Terminators to land on my side of the board. 

The next turn, he brought his bikes around the right side and had his terminators arrive from reserve. He moved up with his shield captain and the bikes, managed to kill a Predator and put some wounds on another before charging cultists. Wiped out a 10 man unit and consolidated into another. The Terminators shot up another 10 man cultist squad then one of the units made a charge into a 10 man squad. Then he used a strategem to split one of the Terminator squads into 6 separate targets, which was going to make it hard for my lascannons to target each one.

Fell back with the cultists who were in combat and shot up the bikes. Managed to destroy the Shield Captain's unit and take out 3 Terminators with lascannons. Did the Grenades strategem again, which took out another 2 Terminators (1 was on 1 wound). Charged with a 20 man cultist squad, who did nothing against the remaining Terminator. 

At this point, he had like 11 Terminators and a bike on the board. The bike moved into my lines. took failed shots at the Helbrute, then charged the cultists. He moved up with his mass of Terminators then used his Strategem again to make his other squad of Terminators into individual units. He took some shots at Predators without killing anything, then everybody started charging cultists. I think I lost about 30 cultists that turn. 

On my half, killed the Jetbike with lascannons, fell back with cultists again, killed 4 Terminators with lascannons, did the Grenades strategem again to kill 1 more Terminator, took a wound off 1 Terminator with cultist autopistols, took another wound off with my Terminators, then charged the remainder with more cultists. He was down to 5 models with his sisters in the backfield and then he called the game. I still had like 40 cultists, most of my lascannons, the Helbrute, plus Abaddon and his Terminator bodyguard, the most likely outcome was him getting tabled.

We talked after the game, said he was counting on getting more cultists off the board but could not ignore the lascannons (which appear to be the only things that can really hurt Custodes reliably.) He was making all these 4++ saves throughout the game, just not often enough for it to matter. He said he thought going after the Daemon Prince right away was a mistake, he would have done better thinning the screens or taking a turn to set up. I told him that Strategem where he can split his Terminators into individual units was really annoying and made things a lot harder, his response was I know. He said he doesn't like the Grenades strategem allowing meatshields to do mortal wounds, and I said I know.

My take was Custodes are always awful, part of the reason this worked was he could mostly not get into range to shoot the main threats to his list. Anything range 24" or less is going to have a hard time firing past the Cultists, and large obstacles forcing opponents into firing lanes is a huge advantage for this gunline. While it's too early to draw conclusions, this was my second game against a really aggressive, fast opponent. Feels like they are the ideal matchup for the Black Legion gunline.

[abaumann]

@techsoldaten

That’s badass dude! Certainly an atypical list these days from what I’ve seen, love to see when that stuff works for people. You should post some battle report photos next time for us. Keep this thread goin! Curious what Pactbound Zealots would do for you btw, given cultists could get lethals on 5s, and could get rerolls plus sustained on 5s for your shooty stuff. Maybe that’s not necessary though.

[techsoldaten]

Not expecting Cultists to do much beyond getting in the way, they're mostly there to act as ablative wounds for the real threats. Buffing them could be overkill, but it might be nice to get some minor offense out of them.

Still learning 11th edition. It's not a sea change from other editions, but getting lethal and sustained hits on the lascannons takes a little getting used to. I ran a very similar list in 8th edition, where Abaddon would give them rerolls to hit and wound. The new rules seem more effective against things like Custodes.

Will try to remember to take photos, no promises. My phone is mostly there for rules, I've officially moved off notepads.

[techsoldaten]

Did play a game this afternoon.

Played against Death Guard. Opponent's list was 3 Plaugeburst Crawlers, 3 Blighthaulers, 2 10-man Plague Marine squads, 5 Blightlord Terminators, Deathshrouds. a Lord of Contagion, a Foul Blightspawn, and one other character I never identified.

Unlike the other match ups, we there was no large building in the middle, just sparse cover. Deployment was fun, he was able to infiltrate the Plague Marines and put the Blighthaulers close enough to see me. He put the Crawlers behind builds to confound my shooting. I deployed with my Havocs standing behind the Predators to obscure LOS after correctly predicting he was going to target them first.

He went first. bombed the Havocs with indirect fire. Lost one squad before it could shoot, whiffed on the others. Even though they could advance and shoot, the Blighthaulers were out of range of the Predators but managed to chew through some Cultists. The Plague Marines marched on the Cultists but were unable to make any charges. 

I responded by moving up Cultists to reinforce the screens - his Terminators were in Deep Strike. Then I took out the Blighthaulers with lascannons along with a few Plague Marines, used the Grenade stratagem to take out another Plague Marine, fired with like 60 Cultists to take out a couple more Plague Marines, then charged the Plague Marines with the Daemon Prince and Cultists. Took out all but 1 Plague Marine in that unit.

Made a mistake with my screens in the first turn, opened up a spot leaving just enough room for the Deathshroud Terminators to deep strike behind my lines. The Blightlords and the Lord of Contagion came in on the other side of the lines, partially in my deployment zone. He fell back with the remaining Plague Marine and moved up with the other Plague Marine squad to charge the Daemon Prince. He also moved is Crawlers up to start using their cannons. The Deathshroud has full LOS to my Havocs, which means the Crawlers had spotters and could hit on a reasonable roll.

Easier to descr4ibe what I lost that round: about 20 Cultists and a squad of Havocs. The Plague Marines were shooting at the Daemon Prince and seemed to be rerolling everything. One Crawler was close enough to shoot cannons at the Daemon Prince without wounding. The Plague Marines dd not charge him. The Deathshround tried a long charge into Abaddon's Terminator bodyguard, but failed the charge. 

So I had threats all over the board, I was losing lascannons left and right, and some heavies were eating into my backlines. I started this turn by moving Abaddon, the Helbrute, and the Terminators into place to engage the Plague Marines. Moved up with the most of the cultists as well, which meant the Deathshroud really didn't have anything to charge. Moved the Daemon Prince behind some terrain to give him partial cover. Had the Cultists plus the Predators shoot up the Blightlords, managed to wipe them out. Used Grenades on the Plague Marines to kill 1 with mortal wounds, then charged in with the Terminators and Abaddon to destroy the squad. 

At the start of turn 4, it was my Predators + Abaddon + Helbrute + Wounded Daemon Prince + Terminators + Havoc Squad + dozens of Cultists versus 3 Plagueburst Crawlers + 1 Plague Marine + 1 squad of Deathshroud Terminators + 1 Lord of Contagion and a Blightlord + 1 Blightspawn hanging out in the back. The Plague Marine chased the Daemon Prince, the Plagueburst Crawlers pulled back behind ruins, the Blightspawn just kind of sat there, and the Deathshroud advanced to try to get back towards my guys. When the shooting started, the Plague Marine shot down the Daemon Prince, the Blightlord did 1 wound to one of the Terminators protecting Abaddon, and the Crawlers shot their cannons without actually hitting anything - remarkably bad roll for him. Then he charged a large Cultist squad with the Lord of Contagion and the Blightlord, destroying like 8 of them. The Plague Marine tried charging some Cultists but failed. The Deathshroud tried an 11 inch charge and failed. 

On my turn, I moved forward with Predators and the Havocs to get an angle on the Crawlers, moved Abaddon and the Helbrute to get theoretically close enough to charge the Lord of Contagion, fell back with the cultists he'd been fighting, and moved up the remaining cultists so the Deathshround would have nothing to do. With the lascannons, was able to destroy 1 Crawler, take another down to 1 wound, knock off the remaining Blightlord, and put some wounds into the Lord of Contagion. With Grenades, I was able to put some more mortal wounds on the Lord of Contagion. Combined autopistol fire from like 40 Cultists was enough to polish off the remaining Plague Marine. Abaddon and his Terminators missed their charge, but the Helbrute got in and took out the Lord of Contagion.

For the final turn, he basically maneuvered and did some indirect fire with the tanks before deciding it was a lost cause.

Observations: The Death Guard were surprisingly mobile, most of their forces were into my screens turn one. I didn't understand his detachments and didn't understand he was able to infiltrate until the game was underway. There was not really a change to stand back and shoot the way I wanted to, otherwise this would have been a different game. Also, learned about the spotter rule for Indirect Fire during this game. If there was a way to keep the Havocs completely out of site in the first turn, this would have been a different game. While my opponent had some other character at the start of the game, I don't remember seeing him do anything which is part of why I don't remember him.

While I needed to move around some during previous games, this was by far the the most I'd done. There's challenges keeping the Predators + Havocs in range of the auras and coherent as a unit. It means you just keep moving a large footprint across the board, I could almost see myself making a movement tray for the whole thing. Losing 8 lascannons sucked, but it didn't really take away from the potency of the list. Rolling with 14 is still punishing. 

[Dr_Ruminahui]

Sounds like you did a great job adapting to changing game conditions.  I'm really surprised your list is doing so well in 11th, given the restricted sight lines and the ease one can get punished for poking models out to shoot, but you seem to have gotten the formula down on such and the screening you need to do to preserve your important units.

[techsoldaten]

Played a very similar list in 8th, so I sort of understand the angles. The 9" rule for models in a unit is a new constraint, but sizing up a board isn't hard with this list.

Would point out: the wins have been against high mobility armies, high invul save armies with low model counts, and then against a relatively slow army with forward deployment. In 2 games, did not lose any lascannons.

Being able to preserve an army's main offensive threat for the duration of a game is rare. I suspect a true counter exists and will emerge that just wrecks me. 

[Dr_Ruminahui]

Fair, but I would have expected that to be custodes, given their small unit sizes (easier to hide) and universal invulnerable saves.  So kuddos.

[techsoldaten]

Easily could have been. Not like I was dominating in that game.

I'm worried about 10 man armored melee units with large numbers of attacks. Berzerkers, Genestealers, Tormentors, Infractors, Assault Intercessors - anything with a high body count, a decent save, and more than 1 attack per turn can eat 20 Cultists. If a couple hit the same turn, I have to hope I have enough Lascannon shots to clear them before facing a bigger threat with my screens gone. I'm worried about Scourges with Dark Lances, who can shoot up a Predator and move back into cover before I can do anything about it. I'm worried about Tau and AdMech with long range firing options, the new cover rule could make that really hard to deal with.

The list is designed to outrange gunlines that shoot 24 to 36 inches while overwhelming opponents with bodies. That's it. 

[techsoldaten]

Read through the Balance Dataslate. Changes points costs for Predators, Havocs and Terminators. Net change is +25.

Need to adjust for that. The conversation about what might be better against this list has me a little paranoid. Considering what I learned from the first few battles:

- Cultist screens are nice for preventing deep strikes, but 40 - 60 Cultists is what I'm losing each game. 60 might be the practical limit for what I need.

- Sustained and Lethal with full to hit rerolls is very nice but might be overkill. Have only rolled a handful of 6s across 3 games, regular shots did most of the work. 

- Abaddon doesn't take a lot of fire, opponents are more worried about the Daemon Prince. Might be safe to drop the Terminator bodyguard.

- In general, opponents might not charge immediately if they had something else to worry about. All my offense is centered on one part of the board.

Considering some variations on the list, would love to know what others think.

- Mutilators in exchange for the Terminators. Deep strike threat with built in re-roll for charges. This would be the option that destroys a tank I can't get to. But they are slow.

- Obliterators in exchange for the Terminators. Deep strike threat with magnificent firepower. Cheaper than Terminators. But they are a bullet magnet and can't do much in melee. 

- 2 units of 10 Bloodletters / Skulltaker / Bloodmaster for the Terminators and about 40 Cultists. Gives me 2 squads deep striking with 5+ to wound against armor. Could eat infantry but they're not going to have great saves. Only a 60-some percent chance of making charges the turn they land.

- Skarbrand or Bloodthirster / 10 Bloodletters for Terminators and 60 Cultists. Would still have some small screens but would expect less from opponents trying to clear them. Same issue with charges, 

Any of these would be better against the Death Guard list, where he had characters and tanks hanging around the in the backfield. I want a way to pressure those.

The Mutilators / Obliterators would do more to preserve the screens. The Bloodletter bomb has a large footprint and could come in at different places. Skarbrand and the Bloodthirsters are the most point and shoot options.

In either case, the logic would be that the lascannons take out big threats from range before the deep strike arrival.

Thoughts?

 

[Dr_Ruminahui]

I would be reluctant in making too big of changes when you seem to have a formula that works - there's always the danger in trying to make you army better against edge cases you just make it worse against everyone.  So maybe just continue to watch for areas in which you struggle, and see how you can shore those up without weakening what you do well.

 

One thought, if you need help scoring secondaries, Fellgor are now a good option.  They are finally appropriately costed (60 points), making them a good substitute for a cultist squad in the scoring role.  While you do lose objective secured, you gain the ability to come in from reserves a turn earlier, letting move off a table edge (including the rear edge) into the enemy's deployment zone on turn 2.  They are also slightly tougher and more punchy than cultists, so can clear weaker backline units, or at least injure them enough that you can potentially flip the point after a charge.

[techsoldaten]

Considered Fellgor. They are $45 - $67 for a box of 10 and paying that much for chaff irks me. 

Hear you about not changing things up. Having variant lists for pick up games is usually the stronger option, nothing obliges me to play any specific list. This isn't a tournament.

[techsoldaten]

Had my first loss over the weekend against World Eaters. 

The reasons for the loss, in order: 

- misplays by me, especially in deployment

- me being stuck in my own deployment zone most of the game

- not knowing the rules well enough 

- statistically improbable dice rolling (not cheating, just consistently good / bad rolls)

The opponent's list had Angron, Khârn, a Slaughterbound, 2x 10 man Berzerker squads in Rhinos, 2x 6 man Eightbound (might have been Exhalted), a Defiler and 2x 10 Jakhals. There might have been something else there, can't remember precisely. 

We played Hammer and Anvil deployment, and my first mistake was deploying 2 20-man Cultist squads near the front of my deployment zone. I wanted to get out in the middle of the board to draw charges and shoot up his units while they were eating through chaff. I didn't cover the backfield properly and that left room for deep strikes.

He went first and moved up with the Berzerkers and Khârn in Rhinos. The Rhinos had some special rules, through formations and stratagems. One was able to scout, the other allowed occupants to disembark and charge. Both Berzerker units + Khârn made 20" charges. Lost one 20-man Cultist unit, lost 17 models from the other right away. The Defiler was able to shoot up a 10 man Cultist squad. At the end of the first, my screens on the left flank were all but gone.

More importantly, my opponent scored a lot of points that turn, especially on secondaries. He was hovering near 30 at the end of the turn.

I responded by destroying the squad with Khârn, killing 7 of the Berzerkers from another squad. His Eightbound arrived the next turn, they were able to deep strike and he positioned Rhinos to block line of sight from my lascannons. One of them made a charge, the other was sitting behind a Rhino. He also tried a charge on my Daemon Prince with Angron through ruins that did not work out. Lost another squad of Cultists to the Eightbound, the Defiler had LOS to a Predator and did some wounds, but he had had all objectives and secondaries outside my deployment zone covered. Again, he got a lot of points and was over 50 at the end of the second turn.

My turn was a mess. Had to shoot through Rhinos to get to the Eightbound. One of them exploded, which was good, but it also put wounds on my Daemon Prince. The Eightbound did not go down this turn, one unit remained with the Slaughterbound and 2 Eightbound in the end. A big reason for this was bad dice rolling, I had a lot of 1s firing with lascannons in a pivotal turn. I also missed a short charge with the Daemon Prince, which meant those remaining Eightbound were all set up for the next turn. 

From there, he proceeded to eat up 2 Predators - one with the Defiler and one with the Eightbound. Angron made his charge into the Daemon Prince, which was nothing for him, and was now looming over Abaddon and the Terminators. He got an Eightbound back at the end of his turn due to the Slaughterbound.

My turn was more shooting gallery heroics, killed Angron and the Defiler with lascannons. Abaddon + the Terminators + the Helbrute all charged into the Eightbound + Slaughterbound to wipe them out. The opponent had 3 Berzerkers and 2 squads of Jakhals left. He carefully positioned them to cover objectives without being in LOS of my army. I was scrambling to get on objectives in the end, but there was little to be done.

He won. The score was something like 85 to 55. Observations: really did not know Rhinos could get a scout move or Berzerkers could do an advance and charge like that. Would have changed my deployment considerably. The Rhinos proved their worth by acting as shields for the Eightbound, really tricky way to protect deep striking units. Losing the screens on the left flank was awful, I was trying to shift left and he just had all this room to drop units. The Defiler was probably his MVP this game, he was lobbing cannon shots at 48" and taking out tanks / Cultists covering objectives. That kept me from scoring points I would have gotten otherwise. The main thing was there was so much pressure at the start, he was pushing my army back into it's own deployment zone. I had no opportunity to take nearby secondary objectives and that really screwed me. The end wasn't very satisfying, I was scrambling to get objectives instead of rushing to table him. Felt weird that I had almost half my army, he had almost no offensive threats left, and I still lost.