Battle Report #4: Lahkers vs. Daemons-Knight-Space Marine Triple Threat

The final game of the league!  I faced off against Jesse and his unbound Daemons-Knight-Marine army.  Comparing the lineups, things didn't look good for the Lahkers.  Jesse's army looked very formidable, especially the Defiler and Obsidian Knight.  Both were well-painted, I should add.  Good paint jobs deserve attention.

Knights, Daemons, Marines–gotta field 'em all!

Mission was Cloak and Shadows (we kept our Tactical Objectives secret), deployment was Hammer and Anvil.  After some discussion we decided to roll off just once for objective placement and initiative.  Jesse won, and objectives were set up evenly spread across the field.  He set up with his Knight, Defiler, Chapter Master, Librarian (with the Shield Eternal), two units of Plaguebearers, one Herald of Nurgle, and one unit of Bloodthirsters all behind an Aegis defence line that cordoned off half of his third of the board.  And it had a quad gun too.  He held two units of Obliterators (one unit of two, and one alone) and a unit of two Nurgle Heralds in reserve.

Apologies in advance if and when I get Daemon units wrong, this was my first time fighting warp-spawn.

An actual gunline deployment for the gunline army for once.

I used the same list as the week before (Decurion with Reclamation Legion, Judicator Battalion, Canoptek Harvest).  I deployed about 6" farther back than usual, hoping to minimize first-turn casualties.  Nemesor Zandrekh and the 15-warrior blob camped in the trees on an objective.  I held my allied Scouts, Devastators with the Librarian (mastery level 2, otherwise vanilla), and my two squads of Triarch Praetorians in reserve.  I failed to steal the initiative, and the game began.

Turn 1

Not a lot happened Turn 1.  Jesse kept his melee units behind the Aegis line, and the Knight, quad gun, and Defiler killed a few warriors and wounded a Wraith.  I think he captured an objective as well.

My turn, I turbo-boosted the Tomb Blades up to the middle objective behind the tower.  The Canoptek formation scuttled forward, staying as much in cover as possible.  The rest of the army inched forward, looking to get around the flank and pick off Jesse's units one by one.  The Ghost Ark headed over to Zandy's unit to rebuild warriors.  For the first time in any game, I believe, I did not fire a single shot in my first turn.  I did switch Zandy's warlord trait to Divide to Conquer, putting a -1 nerf on Jesse's reserve rolls, and captured two objectives for 2 VP.

Turn 2

Jesse rolled for reserves, and got both Obliterator units in.  Zandy denied the Heralds, they had to wait another turn.  The two-man Obliterator unit dropped in by Zandy's blob, and the lone one landed by my Wraiths.  The Bloodthirsters shuffled away from the Tomb Blades, the lone Herald leaped the Aegis line and headed for the Blades, and the rest of Jesse's army inched forward.

"Uh, guys?  Behind us?"

The Herald on the field opened fire with an AP2 flamer, I had the Tomb Blades jink.  My dice, however, decided to get the bad luck out of the way, and two of the Blades failed their saves and RP rolls.  More warriors died to the quad gun and Defiler battle cannon.

nope nope nope nope nope nope

Knight pic, just because.

On my turn, I rolled for reserves, everything came in.  Devastators strolled onto the table by the Obliterators, the Scouts outflanked and arrived on the board edge to my left, and I deep-struck both Praetorian squads.  One landed on target behind the Defiler, the others scattered, rolled a mishap, and were placed by Jesse.  He put them way back in my deployment zone.

In my shooting phase, the Praetorians fired at the rear of the Defiler, and glanced one HP off.  The lone remaining Tomb Blade turned his bike around and floored it away from the Daemon lines.  The Ark put one warrior back into Zandy's squad.  Scouts killed off a couple of the Plaguebearers nearby, Devastators snap-fired at the Obliterators, rolled three sixes To Hit, and a few moments later there was one less Obliterator on the board.  My Wraiths assaulted the other Obliterator, he lost one wound but stood his ground and fought.  I believe both of us scored another objective this game turn.

Turn 3

Jesse's remaining unit of two Heralds of Nurgle arrived and deep-struck into the midfield.  The Knight and Plaguebearers on the other side of the field both moved up, and the Defiler, Chapter Master, and Librarian went to deal with my pesky Praetorians.  My last Tomb Blade had a very lucky escape from the 2+ poisoned shooting from the Heralds.  Zandy's blob got even more lucky with their reanimation rolls, frustrating the remaining Obliterator and his heavy flamer (he wounded 6, killed 2).  My Wraiths killed the other Obliterator in his assault phase and consolidated towards the Knight.  The Praetorians lost a few men to the Chapter Master and Librarian, and dealt one wound in return.  The Plaguebearers on the left side assaulted the Scouts, the Plaguebearer sarge-equivalent challenge the Scout Sarge, and a slapfight almost at the level of vanilla Marines versus vanilla Marines ensued.

Totally photogenic, right? Okay, maybe not, but that's a hell of a paint job there.  Love the shiny blood on the axe.

My turn, I moved the Wraiths and Scarabs towards the Knight, continuing to hand out Reanimation rolls to both units thanks to the Spyder.  (Have I mentioned yet I love the Decurion and its formations?  I do.  I do love them so.)  Zandy's squad killed the remaining Obliterator in a hail of gauss-beams, and they got three more warriors back thanks to the Ghost Ark.  The Scout-Plaguebearer slapfight continued, the Scouts slowly winning because of crappy Daemon saves.  (It should be noted Jesse's dice were misbehaving, and mine were running surprisingly hot.  Lady Luck will no doubt balance the scales in a future game.)

My Stalker knocked a hull point off the Knight, and the Wraiths subsequently assaulted the towering terror.  After throwing about 30 dice at the Knight, a single glance was inflicted, and then he hit back with Strength D attacks and a couple Stomps.  Two Wraiths remained.  They held him in combat, however, so that battle cannon wasn't going to kill anything at the moment.  I scored two more objectives, bringing the total to 4-3, my lead.

Turn 4

Jesse moved his remaining Plaguebearer squad nearer to my troops, and his Defiler took a shot at my Ghost Ark.  The Ark jinked the shot successfully, and Zandy's blob continued to weather fire with considerably better-than-average RP rolls.  The Knight finished stomping my Wraiths to death and surged forward one inch for consolidation.  The Scout-Plaguebearer slapfight continued.  Jesse scored an objective.

My turn, I moved the Devastators to a position where they could get shots on the Knight if it moved up.  The Heralds died to concentrated gauss-fire (or maybe that was last turn...), and the lone Tomb Blade turbo-boosted into Jesse's deployment zone.  The Scarabs dove into the Scout-Plaguebearer combat, finished the daemons, and freed the Scouts up to do stuff.  I scored one more objective, and at this point the timer ran out and all games were called as they were.  I scored Line Breaker, which tipped the balance 5-4, my favor.  The Lahkers were victorious!

And thus my first competitive league ended, with a win-loss ration of 1-3.  I'll take that over 0-4.  I enjoyed the league overall, it was a good challenge to tackle.  I don't know what exact time I shall return to the league, but I shall return for certain.

Zahndrekh/Kobeh getting photobombed in his moment of glory.

Meet the Dynasty #2: Overlord Kobeh

Kobeh daringly (and illegally) deep-strikes with his Deathmarks in a late 5E game.

Overlord Kobeh awoke from hibernation on the wrong side of the stasis chamber, took one look at the spread of the inferior races on the star charts, and grabbed his warscythe and headed out to teach those suckers respect for the true rulers of the galaxy.

Or so the story goes.  What is for certain is he is the opposite number of Lord Nahz; where Nahz is willing to let bygones be bygones, Kobeh will never forget a grudge.  Where Nahz is less than competitive, Kobeh is constantly testing and improving his tactics.  Where Nahz is ultimately pretty chill, Kobeh will never settle for anything less than perfection.  Considering the rather lackluster win-loss record of the Lahker legions, and Kobeh's short temper, he has earned his nickname of "Krazy" many times over.

Kobeh's career got off to an ignominious start when, subbing in for Kutlakh the World-Killer, he fought a Chaos Marine army.  He specifically fought the Chaos Lord, who was armed with the Murder Sword, which of course had Kutlakh's name on it.  Kobeh/Kutlakh failed to kill the Chaos Lord, failed two of his three invuln saves, and went on to fail his Ever-Living roll.  (His Cryptek, funnily enough, stood back up.)

Since then, Kobeh has kept a slightly cooler head, and gone on to lead the dynasty in many battles.  He is responsible for developing the majority of tactics used by the dynasty, for several epic challenges, and for leading the Kung Fu Kourt on its single successful deployment.  He is determined to maintain his monopoly of control over the dynasty's armed forces, and especially determined that the gaudily-outfitted Rynkelyh will not show him up.

Moments of Glory: Slew Jain Zhar in one-on-one combat, led the now-lost Kung Fu Kourt (one victory, one defeat)

Kobeh about to ruin Jain Zhar's day.

Kobeh's favorite place is in single combat, proving his mettle over inferior champions.

An epic but ill-fated expedition against the encroaching Hive Fleet.

Kobeh, moments before slaying this Eldar hero in single combat.

The Kung Fu Kourt taking out a Riptide. Kobeh is still displeased that he is out of focus here.

The pilot episode for "Kobeh's Krazies" TV series received middling reviews, the future of the show is in doubt, much to Kobeh's ire.

Not Pleased

"The planetary governor refused to jam?  I won't have this.  Send him a warning, vaporize his planet's smallest continent, and then we'll see what he has to say."

Workbench #1: Wraiths

I recently got two more Canoptek Wraiths, slightly used, bringing my Wraith squad to almost full strength.  One came without the front arms, so I scrabbled through my bits box and came up with a pair of impromptu weapons.

I took the claws, whip coils, and side panels for the gauss blaster, slapped 'em together with Squadron green putty, and bingo!  Poor man's Wraith arms.

I weighted the bases with hexagonal nuts each, smothered in putty.  Not the prettiest solution, but the Wraiths shouldn't be quite as top-heavy.

Support was provided by man's best friend, coffee.

Some extra silliness.

Lord Rynkelyh attempts to add more dakka to his Barge.

"Shoulder-mounted fifty cal!  Now we're talking!"

Battle Report #3 Lahkers vs. Tyranids, ROUND TWO (a.k.a. Snapfire City)

This one was something.  My opponent was Steve, and he brought a Godzilla list of Tyranids.  Five flyrants, three Carnifexes, and five Mucolids, which were new to me.  Apparently they're the big brothers of Spore mines, hitting you with a S8 AP3 large blast when they explode.

Glorious, to be sure, with a conspicuous lack of Skyfire.

Conspicuous excess of angry flying things with guns.

Anyway.  Mission was Tactical Escalation, so Tactical Objectives would be multiplying like cockroaches.  I was glad for this, seeing as I wouldn't be killing much this game.

I brought Nemesor Zahndrekh back to avenge his honor, along with a reworked Decurion that included the Reclamation Legion, a Judicator Battalion (Deathmark proxies again), and a Canoptek Harvest (Destroyer proxying as Spyder).  Allies were once again Space Marines, with Iron Hands tactics, this time I switched out my Librarian and Tac squad for a Scout squad with Sergeant Telion, with camo nets, sniper rifles, and a missile launcher.

Turn 1

Not a lot happened turn 1, Steve moved his flyrants up, moved his Carnifexes around, potshots were taken, and my Spyder died.  The Devastator squad got wiped out in a hail of deathspitter worms.  Sergeant Telion and his scouts remained thankfully untouched.

"Stay perfectly still, and they just might mistake us for rocks..."

My turn, I finally heeded gunline army tactics and held position.  A few shots were taken at the 'nids, not much happened.  The Wraiths and Scarabs moved up, eager to avenge the fallen Spyder.  The Scouts killed a Hive Guard.

Turn 2

Steve's Mucolids began to drop in this turn, proxied by Lictor models.  My Wraiths became a 288-point bullet sponge, slowly getting whittled down to two or three Wraiths.  The flyrants got their psychic buffs off fine, their psychic mind-bullets did little to nothing, to the relief of my troops.  The Carnifexes and Hive Guard lumbered around and took potshots, they might have knocked the Ark's shielding off.

On my turn, I dropped the Praetorians in, one squad by the Carnifexes, the other on the right side of the board.  They were armed with the Rod of Covenant (12" S5 AP2), they were my cheap Terminator-equivalent.  They put a wound on one of the Carnies, and took out one of the Mucolids.  There was more ineffectual plinking at flyrants, maybe one wound dealt?  I captured Objective 6 for one VP, and the Wraiths and Scarabs assaulted the Carnifexes.  Surprisingly, it was the Scarabs who put a wound on the big bugs.

Turn 3

Flyrants, flyrants everywhere.  Flyrants above, flyrants behind, flyrants in my lines.  The Ghost Ark became a cost-effective fire magnet, shrugging off dozens of dice of fire.  My Warriors and Immortals were probably just staring up, grateful they weren't being hosed, hoping the Ark held up for a little longer.  (This was also one of the few games it took longer for my opponent to do his Shooting phase than me.)  As for VP, it was close, with Steve staying one or two VP ahead.

Memories of this turn are hazy.  Maybe it was lack of sleep, maybe it was the bottle of Bridgeport I had.  I think I scored another objective.  Scarabs and Wraiths were whittled down in assault.  The Praetorians near the Carnifexes had been assaulted, and were inflicting wounds, but slowly losing men as well.

Now that's what I call an open mind on that Carnifex, hurr hurr hurr (boo, hiss)

Turn 4

Steve's synapse creatures had left the Hive Guard and Carnifexes behind by now, one Carnie and a Guard failed their instinctive behavior rolls and went dumb for a turn.  One flyrant turned his fury on the Scout squad, blew all except Telion away, but he said "Nope!" and made his 6+ FNP...

...and right as I'm writing this, I realize Telion is Ultramarine, he uses Ultramarine tactics...crap, I screwed up.  Well.  It's not like he affected the game from here on, so the stain on my honor is only a small one.

Back to the batrep.  The Ghost Ark was finally popped, and the flyrants at last turned their attentions to my troops.  The warriors took the fire, the flyrants mostly ignored the Immortals (dat troll 3+ save).  I think the Scarabs, Wraiths, and Praetorians on the left flank died at this point.  The Praetorians on the right flank had only one man remaining, he went straight for the objective.

My turn, I had the smaller Warrior squad head for the nearest objective, and my Immortals and other Warriors stood and fired.  Not much happened.  The Stalker wounded something, a Carnifex or a Mucolid, one of those.

Turn 5

Four of the five flyrants decided it was beatdown time, and landed around my Warrior blob and Zahndrekh for an old-time gunfight.  Cue dramatic last-stand music.

crapcrapcrapcrapcrapcrapcrapcrapcrap

With around 40 dice of deathspitters coming in, every last warrior died or Look-Out-Sirred for Zandy.  Zandy's 2+ save kept all but one wound at bay, and then a Carnifex assaulted him.  Zandy lost another wound, but held his own, and may have even inflicted a wound on the Carnie.  The Stalker got wrecked.

My turn, the Immortals got out of cover and marched to Zandy's rescue.  The last warriors fired with no effect at the nearest flyrant.  Same with Telion.  The last Praetorian squatted in cover.  The Immortals successfully joined Zandy's combat, and punched the Carnifex to death.  Score!  And I finally achieved my Big Game Hunter objective, got another VP for securing an objective, and came out one VP ahead of Steve.

Carnifex tipping: like cow tipping, except insanely stupid much more glorious

FATALITY

We rolled for game end, it went on.  There were about 3 minutes left before the event timer ran out.

Endgame.

Turn 6

Steve went after his tactical objectives in a frenzy.  Zahnrekh was focus-fired by three flyrants, because he hadn't joined a unit, but he wasn't about to die after holding off a Carnifex, and survived 30 deathspitter shots to the face.  The last warriors died, a flyrant landed on my side of the board to get Line Breaker, and Steve achieved enough objectives to catapult him 6 VP ahead to victory.

I conceded the game to Steve.  In all honesty, I was feeling fairly bitter about that defeat.  Being one point ahead one turn, and then getting slammed in the last 3 minutes of the game...there was no upside to it.

Come on, Gabe, silver lining!  The Praetorians worked decently, having their Rod of Covenant range buffed to 12" was a big upgrade from 5E.  I will be taking them again.  It was good to see Zahndrekh reclaim his honor (stained from running off the table in game #2 the week before).

One more game to go, here's to hoping it's a win.

Battle Report #2 - Lahkers versus Tyranids

For the first time in forever...wait, wrong franchise!  The sentiment is accurate, though.  The nobles of the Lahker Dynasty, Nahz, Rynkelyh, the Ref-tek, and Nemesor Zahndrekh himself got together and formed their first 7E Royal Court.  This time, they would take to the field as part of the Decurion detachment, including a Reclamation Legion and Judicator Battalion.  Zahndrekh was my Warlord, with his new ability to switch his Warlord trait every turn after the first turn.

My opponent was Charles, the mission Contact Lost, the deployment Vanguard Strike.  We placed objectives, him putting them in the center, me putting them towards the table edges, and I won the deployment roll-off.  I had seen his army beforehand, it had a load of the little creatures, two Hive Tyrants with wings and twin-linked devourers (oh great), and a pair of Tyrannocyte spores.  Hmm.  Once more, I squished my allied Marines into one corner, and put everyone else in a nice compact gunline.  A gunline more compact and template/blast-vulnerable than I would like.  Come the Apocalypse allies are kind of a bitch.

"Yes, my personal space bubble is THIS big!  You got a problem with that?"

At the very least, my infantry wasn't hanging out in the breeze like they had in previous games.  As long as the threats appeared to the front, and not the sides, rear, above, and below, I predicted success.  Charles set up his Tyranid warrior brood in cover, with his Zoanthropes and Tyrannofex out front.

Turn 1

Charles stole the initiative.  Sneaky 'nids.  He put his advantage to use and moved everything up, what there was to move up.  Most of his army was stationed in space, prepared for multiple, simultaneous, devastating, redundant deep-strikes.  Raveners, Tyrannocyte spores, flyrants, oh my, and oh crap.  At least they didn't come in turn 1, like certain power-armored armies one could easily name.

Bald Zoanthrope is bald.

In Contact Lost, you could only generate as many tactical objectives as you currently held.  I preferred this mission to the last one, it gave me a few goals to achieve and didn't overwhelm me with options.  (We did forget to generate them a few times, though.) I rolled Kingslayer for my first objective, which was at the moment useless, since the enemy Warlord (painted flyrant) was off the field.

Not much happened turn 1, I killed a Zoey, my drop pod landed, and the Librarian squad did squat to the Tyrannofex.  The melta almost took a wound off, but I had failed to account for the Venomthrope nearby, and the 'fex made his cover save.

"Venomthrope Farts, Averts Melta Catastrophe"

Turn 2

Turn 2, the Ravener blob and Tyrannocyte spore with the 20 devourer-wielding Termagants arrived.  Raveners exploded up on one side of my CCB, spore came down on the other.  This all seemed disturbingly similar to my last game, with the caveat that the foe was landing in front of me, instead of all around.

Turn 2 shooting, Charles' remaining Zoey took a psychic potshot at my CCB.  Overlord Rynkelyh went man-mode, took it on his invuln-shielded pauldron, and rolled a 2.  And then a 1 for his RP.
CCB went poof, one member of the Royal Court was gone, and one-third of my melee shield gone.  Curses.

"I've got this, guys, I've got this!"

"Really, I've got...oh crap."

The Tyrannocyte spore turned out to be four times nastier than a drop pod.  Those guns on its crown weren't just for show, they put out 5 S6 AP4 small blasts per turn.  Coupled with the nasty torrent flamer from the Tyrannofex, my warriors began to feel the pain.  Termagants put out a butt-ton of firepower with their devourers, paring an Immortal squad down to one Immortal and Lord Nahz.

That's a lot of Devourer dice.

Raveners threw out a load of dice from their nipple-guns (Charles' term, and yes I snickered), and yet my warriors kept up the armor saves and RP rolls.  (Decurion is totally worth it.)  The Librarian squad got locked in combat by the warrior brood, and only some lucky rolls, the Shield Eternal, and Iron Hands FNP 6+ saved them.  The flyrants arrived and started picking off Praetorians near Objective 6 with their Deathspitters.  Librarian and warriors continued to fight, Librarian making some crazy-good saves with the Shield Eternal and FNP.

My turn, I punched back.  The Dev squad did better this game, they took a few wounds off the spore and would later on take a few off the Tyrannofex.  I moved my warriors up, rapid fired, many Ravengers and almost all 'gants died, yay.  I had Zandy switch his warlord trait to one that gave him and everyone within 12" To Hit rerolls of 1 in CC.  And then, of course, I decided assaulting those 3 'gants would be too much trouble.  I would regret that later.  The Tomb Blades goofed around in center field, gibbed the remaining Zoey.  Praetorians assaulted the Raveners, managed to lay a few wounds down, but were definitely at the disadvantages fighting 3-wound-multiple-attack-Rending-Fearless creatures.

The Tyrannofex's base magnet captures the tape measure for a moment.

Turn 3

 Charles' flyrants flew around and were royal nuisances.  Toxin was spewed, more warriors died, I finally remembered the Ark's repair function.  The spore laid its blasts on Zandy's squad, they took many hits, rolled morale, OH NO 11!  How far did they run?  9 inches to the table edge 8 inches away.  Dammit Zandy.  (Maybe if I'd assaulted those 3 'gants, then Zandy wouldn't have dashed off the board, and taken my army's morale support with him.)

SON I AM DISAPPOINT

Tyrannofex continued to lumber around, soaked up the shots that came his way, and did damage.

Turn 4

Around this time my memory started getting fuzzy, there was so much to keep track of.  Lord Nahz finally killed the first Tyrannocyte, and no sooner had he done so, the second one dropped in, and let the Toxicrene loose.  For some reason, my Tomb Blades didn't immediately skedaddle for the other side of the board, that doomed them.  The Praetorians held on till the end of this turn, I think, the Raveners finally overwhelmed them.

The Librarian and his squad finally ran out of luck, and the weary Tyranid warriors cleared them form the field and wandered towards my remaining forces.

*agonized terrified text spamming in binary*

Turn 5

The Toxicrene charged into my Tomb Blades, they died a horrible, tentacle-y, Cthulu-themed death.  The unpainted Flyrant flew over within range of my Dev squad, hit them with its Deathspitters, and I failed five 3+ saves.  Derp.  Lord Nahz attempted to repeat his earlier success on the second spore, and it, being a monstrous creature, socked an AP2 hit to him and killed him.

My Stalker got a snap-shot hit on the painted flyrant, he failed his grounding test and bit the dust for 1 wound.  Realizing his foe was shooty and not choppy, the Stalker assaulted with the last Immortals, locked the flyrant in combat.  My Ark picked up the remaining warriors and headed for the enemy board edge, trying to get Line Breaker.

The finishing time rolled around at this point, and the game ended.  Charles won 3 VP to my 2 VP.  Both my Ghost Ark and Stalker survived, a pleasant consolation prize for the defeat.

Game end.

I believe my list was good, and that it was a couple erroneous decisions (not assaulting with Zandy, not running the Tomb Blades away) on my part that cost me the game. Other gaffes included me forgetting my Cryptek: I shelled out 90 points for him and his Chronometron, and then forgot about him the whole game.  Well done, Gabe, well done.  Meanwhile I forgot completely about Zandy and his switch-warlord-trait ability, and the Ghost Ark.  Repair warriors?  Wats dat?

Lessons learned: never, ever leave the Wraiths at home, and glance at your army list, just so you know what useful gubbins your guys have.

Thanks to Charles for a good game.  Nice paint job on the big 'nids, especially the Toxicrene.

"How do I feel about this victory for the swarm?  All right, foe was too crunchy, needed more ketchup."