OK, as promised, the mini-apocalypse is ready to be played. 2v2, 5000 vs 5000 Chaos Knights + Daemons of Khorne / Black legion vs Ultramarines + Sisters of Battle BACKGROUND On the world of Golgotha, which is near the Cicatrix Maledictum, some heretic cults sacrificed themselves in a crazy ritual, opening with their own lives a portal that acted as a direct link with the warp. Thousands of daemons swarmed the capital, with a sudden attack from within the city itself: in a matter of hours, all the districts and the garrisons of the IG have been trampled, but the massacre was so great that it slowed down the chaos hordes, giving some precious time to the imperial èlite… the “Cittadel Victrix”, the heart of the capital, is still intact. The Governor Palace, the communication center with the orbital satellites, the astartes stronghold… all is safe, shielded by the massive inner walls and by the holy aura of the cathedral. And now the moment of truth has arrived: beteewn ruins and lakes of blood, the hordes of chaos are ready to strike: if they will manage to conquer the inner fortifications, they will cut the head of Golgotha’s defensive system. Without guidance, the world will fall. But the imperials have not the only option of a desperate resistance. The daemonic towers, raised in a few hours around the portal are there…the Canoness has declared that if the defenders will break the siege and will bring the relic of Saint Celestine into those towers, the portal will collapse and at that point it will only be a matter of crushing the remnants of the invaders. Battlefield: 44” x 90” (3 panels 30”x44”). The fortress wall is divided into 2 sectors, each one got 25 w, T 7, save 3+. When a sector is destroyed, in that turn and in the following one, the dust gives a -1 to shoot. the first turn goes to Chaos Primary objectives: 1 is the daemonic portal 1 is a holy statue between the fortress and the cathedral 2 on the main wall 1 further obj for each allegiance, to be placed in your own battlefield, at more than 9” from the borders and from other objectives. the primary obj are scored by the allegiance. 5 pts to control two of them, 5 to control three, 5 to control more than the opponent Secondary objectives 2 secondaries picked by each army, scored individually 1 secondary for the allegiance: at the end of the battle, control the main obj of the opponent (wirth 10 points) (basically, each allegiance can theoretically score a total of 45+30+30+10 = 115 pts)
Some info about the lists. I'm gonna play chaos Knights. 1 Tyrant (my general - volcano lance and plasma decimator), a Knight Despoiler (avenger cannon, thermal cannon, ironstorm missiles), a Knight Rampager, 6 Wardogs (3 set as helverins, 3 set as warglaives), enough points in reserve to summon a unit of 3 nurglings My associate Chaos Lord, winged Daemon prince, sorcerer terminator, 4 units of 5 CSM, a couple of greater possessed, 3 helbrutes w multimelta and flamer, 5 terminators, 2 venomcrawlers, a Bloodthirster of insensate rage, 3 units of 21 bloodletters -------- the SM - Ultramarines lieutenant, chaplain, librarian, 3x5 heavy intercessors, Bladeguard ancient + 6 Bladeguard veteran, 10 veteran intercessors, 6 inceptors with plasma, 1 stormhawnk interceptor, and finally 12 (!!!) eradicators Sisters of Battle Celestine, Canoness, 3 x 5 battle sisters squad (with multimelta / flamer), hospitaller, 3 x Imagifier, Repentia superior, 1 retributor squad with 4 multimelta, 2 Exorcists, 1 rhino, then a detachment with canoness, 10 sisters Repentia and 10+5 Zephyrim with a bunch of inferno pistols, 4 mortifiers, 4 penitent engines, 1 retributor squad with 4 heavy flamer i feel it will be a bloodbath, our only chance will be to take those 2 central obj, blast as much as we can with shooting and melee in the first 2 turns, feed the imperial with bodies in the hope to hold those central obj as much as we can, thus winning by primary objectives. No way we will be able to break through all those meltas, flamers, exorcists and eradicators. not even counting all the rest. But they are slow, and hopefully we can block their deep strike with my tyrant, the 3 wardogs-helverin, the nurglings and a couple of those CSM. if the imperials cannot appear in our backlines, they will be forced to walk all the way and won't catch our portal. Even in the best scenario, we'll end with 1 tenth of our initial force...
As promised, here's a "mini" BatRep for a Great game. and what a game it has been... the good news (for a chaos perspective): imperial forces expect a deep assault from us, so they kept a nice part of their forces near the wall (mostly sisters and their engines + mortifiers), but many of their heavy shooters are in the back, especially the eradicators which are bunkered in the cathedral and the fortress. Another nice thing is that their choice of secondary obj was.... questionable, as both of them picked Titan hunter, which basically forced them to eliminate at least 1 big knight each. the sisters picked also thin their ranks, while UM picked their own my knights picked Engage on all fronts (on a second thought, a bad choice) and obviously grind them down The CSM/daemons took deploy scramblers and i don't recall what else. FIRST ROUND. Chaos turn Chaos attacks. we decided to push toward the left, leaving intact the wall on the right. The plan is to blast the marines on the right wall (removing them from the obj) and prepare to push on the left, capturing that obj. We should crumble asap the wall, to shoot as much as we can on what's behind. alas, the plan don't go exactly as planned: the shooting of my knights is pityful (for example, the despoiler is able to kill TWO marines and the volcano lance of the tyrant rolls a 1 on the number of shots, even after a re-roll) We manage to wipe the marines on the wall and tear down the left side (so that was good), but that's it. My rampager even fails the 9" charge on the mortifiers (again, rerolled) and i even take a wound from the flamers. Imperial turn with some move on our right, shielded by the intact wall, they position themselves to counterpunch anything that will dare do enter that side in the second turn. Meanwhile they converge to face the threats on the left. Shooty shooty shoot. All the eradicators are out of range, but the 16 meltas and the multiple missile launchers of the exorcists are not. My save rolls are awful (i made no saves!) but also the sisters are plagued by bad rolls: still, at the end of the shooting, the despoiler is no more (+11 secondary pts for the sisters for that alone) and the rampager is down to 15 w. the stormhawk inflicts 8 wounds on the bloodthirster. The mortifiers charge the rampager: that would kill my second knight and would take away from us the obj. However, despite the storm of attacks, my bad luck ends and i roll a handful of 6s. My knight is still alive on 7 wounds, and my retaliation with the Gauntlet of ascension WIPES the 4 mortifiers! SECOND ROUND. Chaos controls 3 obj. 15 pts for the primary We attack! the rampager goes toward celestine and two sisters' units, the bloodthirster flies over the wall to engage the penitent engines. Our shooting is now much more effective. The stormhawk is no more, and so also the Immolator with its damned double multi-melta and even one exorcist! But most of all, we fire also on the squad that controls the main imperial obj (the statue), and they remove the model near the obj (who was out of range to shoot), not realizing they were losing control of it! The charge by the Rampager is problematic, as a lucky reaction fire from a melta takes it down to 1. we decided to let the bloodthirster go first, so it takes down a couple of engines. Sisters interrupt and kills the rampager, however i spend a cp and it successfully explodes, inflincting around a tenth of mortal wounds. Not bad. Imperial round: they score NO POINTS for the primary, as the control only 1! being unable to descend into our side of the battlefield (you'll see later our deployment), reinforcements descend in the imperial side There are no real big targets for their guns, as both the bloodthirster and the rampager have been killed, so they wipes the visible bloodletters, move forward the actually useless eradicators and prepares to unleash hell in the third round. My advanced wardogs saves a lot and survives, the wall is taken down and also the bloodletters behind it are killed. All in all a massacre and we are bleeding secondaries for "grind them down", but it was expected. THIRD TURN. We still take 15 pts for the primaries. The chaos terminators managed to appear in a spot left unguarded and so they complete the deploy scramblers obj, for further 10 pts. we just push forward, ready to throw ourselves into the imperial line. We shoot as much as we can, killing a good portion of the inceptors too, then we charge. we just need to keep them at bay and almost half of our attackers is killed in the melee. Imperial Round. they only control 2 obj, it's 5 points for the primaries, the first ones they collect! Then it's a bloodbath, they kill the terminators and then they basically wipe away all that was still there between shooting and charges. THey are now in control of the 2 middle objectives. FOURTH ROUND Chaos. We take only 5 primary points for the obj in our zone, and we still have some aces upon ours sleeves. I burn my last cps to pump the Tyrant and by concentrating its fire and the shooty warddogs-helverin, we wipe the units that were holding the left obj, then the last unit of bloodletters, kept in reserve 'til now, appears and charges the units on the right , grabbing the control of that obj. Imperium: thanks to our last effort, they don't have the central objectives, so they pick only 5 points for the primaries. Of course, now they just move and steamroll the 'letters, retaking full control of the battlefield and killing also 2 wardogs for good measure. just a look from our side, as you can see how we were able to block the deep strikes: very good coverage from the tyrant, 2 CSM squad, the last wardog and a unit of 3 summoned nurglings (proxied by necrons scarabs). There's also a hidden chaos champion that holds the obj visible on the right FIFTH TURN well, we score 5 pts for the primary obj imperium is finally able fo take full 15 for the primaries, but it's too late. 76 to 70 for CHAOS Well, it was a very fun game. We won essentially because a good amount of things happened: Good tactical decisions from our part and very solid play for the control of the main obj. Bad chioce of the secondary objectives. Yeah, our secondaries weren't that great (Engage on all fronts just gave me 4 points), but the SM player took literally nothing from Titan Hunter. Good placement in our portion of the battlefield, bad placement from Imperium and questionable decisions during the game. We needed all of this, to win with a such small margin. the primary score went: 25 for the imperium (0+5+5+15) and 40 for us (15+15+5+5). We were able to collect 36 pts for the secondaries (13 each), while the imperial did 45 (IIRC 23 for the sisters alone).
ah, yesterday i've run a very sperimental Tau list, with the hovering fortifications, 3 hammerheads and no drones. Against an optimized SoB list. Let's say it was too much unusual: the fortifications work, even the "no drones" to a certain point (20 pts on secondary obj in the first 2 turns are no joke)... but the hammerheads are a point sink, even with the no penalty to move and fire. They simply are not able to survive. And let's be honest: it's not players' fault to run riptides with drones, it's GW that didn't gave any different viable option. Tau needs a new codex with a massive rules rewrite.
They'll get their time soon enough. Sisters will probably be getting a revamped Codex alongside Dark Eldar next week, as their battlebox will drop then too, while Tau will be coming later on so it's likely they'll have a powercreep advantage. I just hope Tyranids get something decent...
Sure, sisters will be somehow nerfed (as actually their heroes can still buff tanks). And i really hope for some tyranids buff.
ohh hamemrheads? fun choice but not the most competitive as you said, no durability. honestly as awesome as they are, there is nothing they offer that a broadside can do better. Tbh while the shape of tau is pretty shit, on the upside we are seeing some of the most wonky tau lists to date. if you want some more in depth tau tactica give me a bonk
Yeah, we can share some ideas, i'm open to new tactics, but i am not a rookie T'au player. It was just that i was bored to play my usual fire station with 3 broadsides w 6 drones and ethereal / aun'va.
ahh aun'va is quite a mixed bag. he has some very good benefits and is 100% worth taking in a t'au sept list. Another thing to pick up would be shadowsun in t'au sept, but let's be honest that is a given. but that is vanilla, everyone knows that the farsight enclaves is where the fun is at. first off you want atleast 2 crisis units, and 1 has to be veteran cadre (usually this is my fusion team). to compensate, i usually hit flamers on the other unit with an ats for some melee in a pinch. next up, consider using stealth teams to replace your now absent infantry and take a ghostkeel to supplement. really the remaining points are your call, could be a riptide or broadside squad, but you need something with decent range also, if you're interested i can send you some links (probably through personal messages as i dont want to promote on the forum) that have some awesome tau stuff
As someone who's planning on running close quarters firepower tau (gee, that sounds a lot like my Salamanders LOL), I may be interested in what other tau players have to suggest. Notwithstanding the railgun-equipped ghostkeel I built before deployment (very much a WYSIWYG build), I'm planning out what to do with the fire warriors (currently leaning towards breachers) and battlesuit commander I've yet to build, let alone decide what sep't I want to run. The only other tau model I have available is a fireblade.
As much as that's certainly true, i suppose you can still laid some serious firepower with the custom sept that buffs missile and lets you reroll 1s to wound, than field 3 broadsides and at least a crisis unit, all of them full missile. I will think on it. Oh, you can surely have some fun with fire warriors and fireblade. At least you can count on a good saturation.
Taking a brief gander at the various sep'ts, I would hazard a guess that Vior'la is ideal for fire warrior lists, specifically with being able to run-and-gun with rapid-fire weapons as assault without suffering the usual debuff for advancing and shooting.