Battle Report: LGS Matched Play - Knight of Atonement

I recently had the chance to get in a matched play game at the LGS with Cooper and his Grey Knights again.  It was my first non-crusade, non-event 10th edition game and just before the new Space Marine codex.  I was pleased with how Oath of Moment worked and overall how my army is functioning.

++++

Narrowly defeated in the Occultaris Campaign, Primus Leo Faustus is questioned by the Grey Knights, at gun point.  His answers were, persuasive.

Imperial Record: X393-334-QR772012101
Date: 3687023.M42

++++

Battle Report:

Ruleset: 2023 Tenth Edition Leviathan Mission Cards
Deployment: Dawn of War
Primary Mission: Purge the Foe

Mission Rule: Vox Static

Points: 2000 

My Forces:

+ Leaders +

• Primus Leo Exevio Faustus - Captain in Terminator Armour: Warlord - Enhancement: Bolter Discipline, Power Fist, Storm Bolter, Aux Grenade Launcher
• Epistolary Prior Isaac Theodesius - Librarian in Terminator Armour:  Force Axe, Storm bolter, Enhancement: The Honour Vehement
• Lexicanium Ezekiel - Force Sword, Bolt Pistol
• Lieutenant Aurelius - Master-crafted Boltgun, Power Fist

+ (Troops) +

• Squad Cornelius - 10 man Tactical Squad - Power Fist, Plasma pistol, Bolt pistols, Meltagun, Multi-Melta, Bolters
• Squad Kaiel- 10 man Tactical Squad - Chainsword, Plasma pistol, Bolt pistols, Meltagun, Multi-Melta, Bolters

+ (Elites) +

• Squad Tourbillion - 5 man Terminator Squad: Teleport Homer, Power sword, Storm bolter, Assault cannon, 3x Chainfist, Power fist
• Squad Nox - 5man Terminator Assault Squad: Teleport Homer,  5x Thunder Hammer & Storm Shield
• Squad Lazarus- 5 man Assault Squad w/ Jump Packs: Bolt Pistols, Chainswords, 1x Grav-pistol, 1x Power Fist, 
• Squad Velox - 5 man Vanguard Veterans Squad: Heirloom Relic Blade, 4x Storm Shields, 3x Heirloom Thunder Hammers, 1x Heirloom Lightning Claws (pair)
• Venerable Brother Psigoras "Fury" - Dreadnought: Dreadnought melee weapon w/ Storm bolter, Twin Lascannon

+ (Heavy Support) +

• Squad Nero - 10 man Devastator Squad: Power sword, plasma pistol, 3x Lascannon, Missile Launcher, Bolters & Bolt Pistols
• Land Raider One - Land Raider - Twin Heavy Bolter, 2x Godhammer Lascannons 

+ (Fast Attack) +

• "One Charlie" - Land Speeder Tornado: Heavy flamer, Multi-melta

The Opponents: Cooper's Grey Knights

Takeaways & Analysis:

Battle Round 1:

We were playing with the mission cards this game and I got really lucky with my objectives.  I got to move first and I was able to score "Tempting Target" and "Deploy Teleport Homer" for a total of 8 points, while I sat on "Engage On All Fronts".  We advanced up to dump out the tactical squad lead by Ezekiel riding in the Land Raider onto the central objective and threaten the eastern and western objectives with jump marines.  I held Squad Velox a bit off the objective up in the building so that they could counter strike.  I got some solid lascannon shots out, though wasn't able to see much and I was out of range on my main oath target unfortunately.

Meanwhile, Cooper struck-out and did not achieve any of his objectives: "Deploy Teleport Homer", "Cleanse", or "Assassination".

Battle Round 2:

Again super lucky, I drew "Bring it Down" right when it was time to destroy some mechs.  My Oaths worked great and I was able to destroy first one walker with Squad Nero and then bring down the second with my Dreadnought (newly interred Psigoras).  Furthermore, Squad Tourbillion beamed down in the backfield per their usual manouver, lead by Leo Exevio Faustus himself and shoot up one of the Tech Marines.  This allowed me to score 7 big points with "Bring it Down" and 5 points for "Assassination".  Unfortunately being in Cooper's deployment zone on the objective wasn't in a good spot for "Engage on All Fronts" so I discarded that.  I had 12 points for the main Purge the Foe mission objectives.

Cooper managed to kill Squad Velox in a melee over the western objective, down One-Charlie in the backfield when he beamed in, and eliminate Squad Cornelius in the center (per my plan to bubble wrap the Land Raider and Squad Nox) but Ezekiel survived.  I was able to swing back in a melee and kill another Tech Marine.  Again Cooper was unlucky and only managed to score 8 points for the main mission and 5 points for "Behind Enemy Lines"

Battle Round 3:

Continuing to draw just the right objectives at just the right time I was able to score "Area Denial" and "Secure No Man's Land" for 5 points each, with another 12 for the main objective.  Squad Nox, lead by Theodesius cleared off the Grey Knight Terminators from the central objective, and a third leader was slain.

The Grey Knights finally score 5 points for "Assassination" when Aurelius eventually fell, but again couldn't score much other than 8 main objective points.  Squad Kaiel falls with Aurelius

Battle Round 4:

Big scoring round: 12 points for the main objective, 8 points for "Capture Enemy Outpost" and 3 points each for "Behind Enemy Lines" and "Cleanse".  Another squad of tactical Grey Knights were eliminated .

Cooper managed to score 5 points for "Storm Hostile Objective" by running by Brother Sergeant Lazarus (who didn't quite move block well enough) and rushing Venerable Brother "Fury" Psigoras to win back the eastern objective after blowing him up.  The smoke screen only delayed his demise.

Battle Round 5:

I eliminated a squad of purifiers and scored 2 points for "No Prisoners" and 12 for the main objective.

Cooper took some pot shots and eliminated Ezekiel (who almost managed to survive on one wound the whole game with no remaining squad mates) and finally managed to kill more units than I did in the battle round so got 12 for the main objective.

Overall I had good control of the objectives with more units, high durability with terminator armor and/or Librarian shields, and extremely good luck with cards.  We both agreed that taking the extra 5 marines on the devastator squad allowed them to stay in the fight and add a lot of damage.

Battle Report: US Open 2023 Tacoma - Occultaris Campaign M5 - Squats + GSC

 ++++

It was the fated hour for the Battle for Occultaris: with the vaults being cleaned out of relics and ancient technology, all that was left was to drive the spear into the heart of the enemy.  By the grace of the Emperor of Mankind himself, a brief vox window opened in the interferance allowing Faustus to contact the battle barge above:

Send everything down.

And so drop ships and drop pods decended to the surface, reinforcing the Ultramarines with much needed supplies, equipment, and additional forces.

The Ravenous Hordes would be sending everything they had, but they would be ready to stomp them into the mud.

++++

Battle Report:

Ruleset: 2023 Tenth Edition Leviathan US Open Narrative Missions, Tyrannic War Crusade
Mission: Against the Swarm

Points: 2000 

Special Rules: 2 vs 1 (as they needed someone to play 2 opponents)

Mission Objectives

At the end of the battle, the defender scores 20VPfor each objective marker that remains on the battlefield, and the Attackers score 15VP for each objective marker that was destroyed.

At the end of the battle, the attackers score 15VP if they have two or more units wholly within the Defender's deployment zone that are not below half-strength.

My Forces:

+ Leaders +

• Primus Leo Exevio Faustus - Captain in Terminator Armour: Warlord - Enhancement: Artificer Armour, Crusade Relic: Artificer Weapon: Power Fist, Brutal Heirloom Storm Bolter
• Praelior Tarquinius Iulian Regulus - Chaplain in Terminator Armour:  Crozius arcanum, Storm bolter
• Lexicanium Flavi - Force Sword, Bolt Pistol

+ (Troops) +

• Squad Cornelius - 10 man Tactical Squad - Power Fist, Plasma pistol, Bolt pistols, Meltagun, Heavy Bolter, Bolters
• Squad Kaiel- 5 man Tactical Squad - Chainsword, Plasma pistol, Bolt pistols, Meltagun, Heavy Bolter, Bolters

+ (Elites) +

• Squad Tourbillion - 5 man Terminator Squad: Teleport Homer, Power sword, Storm bolter, Assault cannon, 3x Chainfist, Power fist, Only the Swift Survive
• Squad Nox - 5man Terminator Assault Squad: Teleport Homer,  5x Thunder Hammer & Storm Shield
• Squad Lazarus- 5 man Assault Squad w/ Jump Packs: Bolt Pistols, Chainswords, 1x Grav-pistol, 1x Power Fist, Headhunters
• Squad Velox - 5 man Vanguard Veterans Squad: Heirloom Relic Blade, 4x Storm Shields, 3x Heirloom Thunder Hammers, 1x Heirloom Lightning Claws (pair)
• Venerable Brother Psigoras "Fury" - Dreadnought: Dreadnought melee weapon w/ Storm bolter, Twin Lascannon

+ (Heavy Support) +

• Squad Nero - 5 man Devastator Squad: Power sword, plasma pistol, 3x Lascannon, Missile Launcher
• Land Raider One - Land Raider - Twin Heavy Bolter, 2x Godhammer Lascannons - Reinforced Superstructure

+ (Fast Attack) +

• "One Charlie" - Land Speeder Tornado: Heavy flamer, Multi-melta, Finely Balanced, Precise Multi-melta

Takeaways & Analysis:

This was the battle I was waiting for.  As luck would have it, a player came up to me and asked if I would be ok playing a 2000 point game 1v2.  I said 'sure....' a bit surprised and unsure if he was being serious as I though the factions were still balanced.  Sure enough he was serious, apparently some players had to leave early or something and they needed someone to take on two opponents.

Mark and Max had Squats and Genestealer Cults respectively - or a mining guild that had some mysterious contact with strange xeno organisms inadvertently.

This would be great because I knew that at 1000 points it was really tough to put together a good list with the stuff I have and control the larger board, but with 2000 points everything clicks into place and I have a lot of options.  I threw together a list I had been experimenting with already a bit, but afterwards I realized I didn't field Squad Uzziel when I should have, so I actually played about 1900 or so points.  This is ok though since typically in a 1v2 situation the side with two players is at a slight disadvantage.

They started with more crusade points than I did so I took the basic "High Strategy" crusade blessing to keep it easy.  Turns out that really paid off starting with 2 CP.

Everything was a bit of a blur and I think we only got through 2 battle rounds, but it was a lot of fun.  The genestealers swarmed at me really fast but while Squad Nox took the brunt of the assault, Squad Velox, Squad Lazarus, and the rest managed to drive them back.

My opponents realized they made a bit of a mistake thinking they could do a shock & awe style blitz to push me back into my deployment zone while the space dwarves swooped in to destroy the objectives.  It turned out that only one unit per turn could perform the action to destroy the node.  Just like my mistake the first game, this somewhat sealed their fate early because by pushing so hard I was able to make a brutal counter-strike.

Remembering the lessons learned from the prior games, I concentrated my heaviest fire towards the side of the board that had their hardest hitting vehicles, and this time I had enough firepower to ensure that Oath of Moment could take out at least one vehicle per turn.  I actually ended up destroying two mining trucks and the big land fortress, which exploded in what might have been the first and most impressive explosions of the day!  Smoke was amazing for the Land Raider and allowed it to barely survive and return fire.

Squad Nox falls but Squad Lazarus moves in with the Hammer of Wrath to support Regulus

Also, this game I loaded up a tactical squad lead by a librarian into the land raider for a 4++ invuln OC 20 unit that was really hard to shift off the objective on that same side.  Between them, Squad Nox, and Squad Velox I had 3 extremely durable squads in each third of the board and it really helped me maintain a presence.  

By the end of turn 2 I had beamed in Squad Tourbillion lead by Brother Captain Faustus into the Votann backline and they were really in no position to continue.  It was an epic finale to a really fun weekend, and my opponents were great sports.  Also, while they lost the battle, their faction actually won the Occultaris Campaign by the slimmest of margins which will advance the story for the grand narrative later in the year.

It was really great to finally play a 2000 point game - its nice to see how the full army works.

Battle Report: US Open 2023 Tacoma - Occultaris Campaign M4 - Tyranids

++++

After a crushing defeat that left their war materiel sabotaged, Faustus and his command had finally found the vaults and precious relics of Occultaris, but the way was blocked by xenos.

++++

Battle Report:

Ruleset: 2023 Tenth Edition Leviathan US Open Narrative Missions, Tyrannic War Crusade
Mission: Empty the Vaults

Points: 1000

Mission Objectives

At the end of each battle round, each player scores 5 VP for each of the following conditions:

• They control one or more objective markers.
• They control two or more objective markers.

At the end of each battle round, the player who controls the most objective markers also scores an additional 10 VP

My Forces:

+ Leaders +

• Primus Leo Exevio Faustus - Captain in Terminator Armour: Warlord - Enhancement: Artificer Armour, Crusade Relic: Artificer Weapon: Power Fist, Brutal Heirloom Storm Bolter

+ (Elites) +

• Squad Tourbillion - 5 man Terminator Squad: Teleport Homer, Power sword, Storm bolter, Assault cannon, 3x Chainfist, Power fist
• Squad Lazarus- 5 man Assault Squad w/ Jump Packs: Bolt Pistols, Chainswords, 1x Grav-pistol, 1x Power Fist
• Squad Uzziel - 5 man Tyrannic War Veterans: Boltguns, Bolt pistols, combat weapons

+ (Heavy Support) +

• Squad Nero - 5 man Devastator Squad: Power sword, plasma pistol, 3x Lascannon, Missile Launcher
• Land Raider One - Land Raider - Twin Heavy Bolter, 2x Godhammer Lascannons - Reinforced Superstructure

+ (Fast Attack) +

• "One Charlie" - Land Speeder Tornado: Heavy flamer, Multi-melta, Finely Balanced, Precise Multi-melta

Takeaways & Analysis

This was quite a punishing game for both sides, lots of units killed.  The mission "Auto-seal Protocols" are a bit of a let down though because whichever side gets their objective marker randomly removed is put at a disadvantage pretty hard.  I think the mission would be designed a lot better if it was an even removal of objectives that either progressively funnel you into the center, or to one of the sides.  As such, I lost out on the removal of the first objective and it was pretty hard to recover from that with only 1000 points of units.  

My opponent was still learning the game a bit so we were going a bit slow and only got to finish battle round 3.  Still it was a good game where we traded big monsters/vehicles and had a brawl in the center.

But Brother Sergeant Lazarus, last of his squad, will forever be remembered for throwing a melta grenade at the Malwoc that dealt 6 mortal wounds!  This day, 4536022.M42 will be marked on his service record!

Additionally, it was great to see Squad Uzziel, the Tyrannic War Veterans, be put to their maximum use.  They were quite effective when they were able to get into range to shoot, and actually they provided a lot of menace to my opponent, who actually elected to use the 'sabotaged' bonus against them from the faction victory from the previous game.  It might have been better off to have loaded them into the Land Raider and send them into the middle and then beam in the Terminators, but it was tricky with so few units to cover the objectives.

Also, I didn't capitalize so well on the focus fire from Oath of Moment with all of my big guns - but it was hard to do given the layout.  I was able to destroy several monsters, but he had 3 big shooty monsters to my one plus one shooty squad.

After finishing off the swarm of hormagaunts that wouldn't die I conceded since we ran out of time.  There wasn't much of a way to climb back through either points or killing everything: the Land Raider had died and he still had a lot of units.

Battle Report: US Open 2023 Tacoma - Occultaris Campaign M3 - Sisters

++++

The Tenuous Allies, after extending out from the drop sites to secure supplies, stumbled into the the plans of the Ravenous Hordes all along: to infiltrate and sabotage their back lines, in an Insurgency!

As the vox static cleared, it became apparent that the Adepta Sororitas had declared any Imperial Forces working in even a 'tenuous alliance' with xenos in an effort to secure the relics of Occultaris would be considered heresy.  Faustus was unimpressed with their demands as he gestured to have the audio cut - the Ecclesiarchy did not dictate the actions of Adeptus Terra, let alone Adeptus Astartes, but he wondered what the true motivation was...

++++

Battle Report:

Ruleset: 2023 Tenth Edition Leviathan US Open Narrative Missions, Tyrannic War Crusade
Mission: Insurgency

Points: 1000

Mission Objectives

At the end of the battle:

• The attacker scores 20VP for each primed objective marker on the battlefield.
• The Defender scores 15VP for each unprimed objective marker on the battlefield

My Forces:

+ Leaders +

• Primus Leo Exevio Faustus - Captain in Terminator Armour: Warlord - Enhancement: Artificer Armour, Crusade Relic: Artificer Weapon: Power Fist

+ (Elites) +

• Squad Tourbillion - 5 man Terminator Squad: Teleport Homer, Power sword, Storm bolter, Assault cannon, 3x Chainfist, Power fist
• Squad Lazarus- 5 man Assault Squad w/ Jump Packs: Bolt Pistols, Chainswords, 1x Grav-pistol, 1x Power Fist
• Squad Uzziel - 5 man Tyrannic War Veterans: Boltguns, Bolt pistols, combat weapons

+ (Heavy Support) +

• Squad Nero - 5 man Devastator Squad: Power sword, plasma pistol, 3x Lascannon, Missile Launcher
• Land Raider One - Land Raider - Twin Heavy Bolter, 2x Godhammer Lascannons - Reinforced Superstructure

+ (Fast Attack) +

• "One Charlie" - Land Speeder Tornado: Heavy flamer, Multi-melta

Takeaways & Analysis

 This one didn't go so well for Faustus and his Ultramarines.  The mission called for the attacking sisters to prime explosives on each objective and had the 'Counter-assult Engagement' parameter so that the defender (the Ultramarines) had the first turn.  I made the gamble to throw everything I had at the Castigator tank in the backfield since it was pretty much the only thing I could see, and then drop the Terminators out and charge them and the Assault Marines into the Retributor Squad hiding in a building to the northeast.

My bold moves didn't pay off - not only was I not able to completely destroy the tank (only 2 wounds remaining!) but none of my infantry was able to get a charge off.  What followed was a chain of events where we got melted to slag pretty quick.  I had pretty cold dice while my opponent had hot dice, so it was quite a stomping.  This was definitely one where I probably would have been better off just hiding for the first turn.

While every unit was destroyed, it was fitting that only Faustus took a battle scar - he did get lasered in the face by a Vindicare sniper.  I immediately removed it with my hard earned RP.

Battle Report: US Open 2023 Tacoma - Occultaris Campaign M2 - Necrons

 

++++

Brother Captain Faustus: "In their haste to secure the drop sites, the Tenuous Allies are low on supplies. We must claim the resources about the area before the enemies of the Imperium capitalize on the situation."

"Squad Tourbillion will accompany me in Land Raider One.  Squads Lazarus and Uzziel will deploy to the flanks with Squad Nero providing withering cover fire from a position in the ruins designated as Sigma 2."

"Crush the enemies of the Emperor."

++++

The second of 3 matches on the first day of the US Open narrative campaign was against James' exceptionally well painted Necron army.  Having leveled up after the first match, Faustus was sporting a master crafted power fist as well as some artificer terminator tactical dreadnought armour.

Battle Report:

Ruleset: 2023 Tenth Edition Leviathan US Open Narrative Missions, Tyrannic War Crusade
Mission: Scattered Supplies

Points: 1000

Mission Objectives:

At the end of the battle, each player scores 15VP for each objective marker that units from their crusade army are carrying, and an additional 5VP for those units that are wholly within the player's deployment zone.

My Forces:

+ Leaders +

• Primus Leo Exevio Faustus - Captain in Terminator Armour: Warlord - Enhancement: Artificer Armour, Crusade Relic: Artificer Weapon: Power Fist

+ (Elites) +

• Squad Tourbillion - 5 man Terminator Squad: Teleport Homer, Power sword, Storm bolter, Assault cannon, 3x Chainfist, Power fist
• Squad Lazarus- 5 man Assault Squad w/ Jump Packs: Bolt Pistols, Chainswords, 1x Grav-pistol, 1x Power Fist
• Squad Uzziel - 5 man Tyrannic War Veterans: Boltguns, Bolt pistols, combat weapons

+ (Heavy Support) +

• Squad Nero - 5 man Devastator Squad: Power sword, plasma pistol, 3x Lascannon, Missile Launcher
• Land Raider One - Land Raider - Twin Heavy Bolter, 2x Godhammer Lascannons

+ (Fast Attack) +

• "One Charlie" - Land Speeder Tornado: Heavy flamer, Multi-melta

Takeaways & Analysis

Oath of Moment wins the day again for the Land Raider - it managed to blast away a wing of Tomb Blades with supporting fire from Squad Nero on the first turn.

On the Northern flank, Squad Lazarus and Squad Tourbillion lead by Brother Captain Leo Faustus himself eliminate a squad of Skorpekh  Destroyers and their leader (and kill him twice as he tries to get up).  They manage to pry some supplies out of its cold, (un)dead hands (space undead).

Meanwhile, Squad Uzziel grabbed supplies and retreated into the deployment zone as the land raider moved down the southern flank to secure another supply cache.  It took heavy fire from some heavy destroyers and turned back to escape.

With 4 of the 6 supply drops secured, and the massive damage sustained by the land raider, Faustus signals a tactical withdrawal, himself carrying the last supply drop, as the mission objectives were achieved.

Only One Charlie was lost (again), this time taking a battle scar as one of the crew members sustained fatal injuries.