Tag Archives: kingbreakers

40k: 1350pts vs Necrons

Posted on by tjkopena

kingbreakers-iconLovell and I got in a pretty good 1350pt game at Redcap’s on Thursday.  It was interesting because his army was so small.  They wound up getting effectively tabled, but pulling even in kill points through picking off all my easy targets.

Army

Lovell had tragically left a bookbag at home, leaving him with 1350pts ready to go.  I basically dropped the Devastators from my current 1500 pt list, leaving:

  • Capt Angholan—Vulkan
  • Librarian Rorschach—Librarian w/ Terminator Armor, Storm Shield
  • Sternguard x5 w/ Drop Pod w/ 3x Combi-Meltas
  • Tacticals x5 w/ Razorback, Powerfist
  • Tacticals x10 w/ Rhino, Missile Laucher, Meltagun, Hunter-Killer
  • Tacticals x10 w/ Missile Launcher, Flamer
  • Landspeeders  x3 w/ Multi-Melta, Heavy Flamer
  • Thunderfire Cannon

He brought some lord with Royal Court, two blobs of Immortals, one blob of Warriors, and two Night Scythes.

I challenge *you*!

I challenge *you*!

Battle

We rolled for Vanguard (corners) deployment and Purge the Alien (annihilation).  Lovell claimed first deployment, but then I Seized the Initiative and took first turn.  He only had the Royal Court and Warriors on the table, so right away I decided to get in his face.  Sternguard dropped on the Royal Court, both transports rushed Flat Out toward the Warriors, and the Razorbacks flanked toward both.  I was hoping I could get into some assaults the next turn and annihilate the unit before his supports arrived.

This didn’t quite happen.  The Royal Court ran away scared, teleporting halfway across the table.  That gave the leader a clear shot with his powerful 1-shot Gauss beam attack to explode the previously well hidden Razorback.  The Rhino meanwhile drove into a ditch crossing a crater and got Gaussed to pieces by the Warriors, stranding dudes well short of the bad guys.  The upside of this was that it exposed the Royal Court to a counter-assault by Angholan (Vulkan), his Combat Squad, and my homefield Tactical Squad lurking nearby.  They didn’t last too long.

Stalking the remaining Necron automaton.

Stalking the remaining Necron automaton.

The Immortals then came in with the Night Scythes and it became essentially a game of them trying to do enough shooting to hurt before Angholan and friends could crash into them.  The battlefield was too tight though and they just couldn’t do enough damage before the assaults came and they were slowly wiped out.  At one point things looked pretty grim for the Necrons but they soldiered on.  Eventually there was only a single Necron infantry model remaining, but the Night Scythes continued swooping around taking potshots at things and claimed several Landspeeders.  Meanwhile the Kingbreakers ran around trying to catch up to that one guy and took the occasional shot at the flyers.

Outcome

Both sides withdraw from battle, warily eyeing their foe: Tie game, Necrons with 6 kills and First Blood, Kingbreakers with 5 kills, Warlord, and Linebreaker.  Lovell would have actually won but a Night Scythe and squad leader were caught in Ongoing Reserves on game end and destroyed.

Run away! Run away!

Run away! Run away!

Analysis

After Turn 4 Lovell was ready to concede, and if we’d been playing objectives that probably would have been reasonable; he only had a couple infantry models remaining.  We played on, however, and he wound up tieing it up and even pulling ahead if he hadn’t taken a risk by putting his last dude back into a flyer before it zoomed off the table and was destroyed in Reserves when the game promptly ended.  This highlighted a weakness of my army in Annihilation, especially against a small force like Lovell’s.  There’s just so many units in mine that I can wipe out a ton of enemy models but still lose on Kill Points.  In this case, the Night Scythes were just barely able to take out the Landspeeders and surge up in points.  Like always, never ever give up, no matter how grim things look!

One thing Lovell probably should have done differently was to drop his Immortals farther out.  As played they landed too close to my guys and weren’t able to do enough shooting before they got assaulted and eventually taken down.  For my part, I probably shouldn’t have brought the Sternguard in so close.  As usual they just took the brunt of all the Necron’s shooting and were thinned out pretty quickly.

Thunderfire Cannon again came up pretty solid.  I need to think about some anti-air though, probably going with a Space Marine Stalker, but possibly just an Aegis Defense Line.  To some extent I can ignore or ping away blindly at a flyer or two, but it’s definitely not ideal.  However, this is a place where Vulkan’s melta buff seemed pretty useful, even in the less vehicle oriented 6th edition, by enabling re-rolls of snapshots against the flyers.

One thing that’s been bugging me about 6th edition lately is that units can’t assault out of a transport even if it didn’t move.  It does make actual assault vehicles even more distinguished, but I thought it was already a pretty big deal to be able to roll forward and still assault.  This change definitely reduced the assault capabilities of standard Marines and a staple tactic against shooty armies.  More generally and importantly, it creates some weird disincentives.  I.e., if you can’t or don’t want to charge my unit inside a transport, you probably actually don’t want to pop it open anymore.  All that does is let me charge you on my turn, whereas if I was left in the vehicle I would not be able to assault on my next turn.  Previously there was no disincentive like that, you were getting charged either way so you may as well destroy the transport.

There’s just a photo or two more in the Flickr gallery; I was running late and never really regathered my calm & focus to grab more pictures.

Yep. Stuck here again.

Yep. Stuck here again.

40k: 1850pts vs Grey Knights

Posted on by tjkopena

kingbreakers-iconLorenzo and I paired off his Grey Knights against my Kingbreakers tonight at Redcap’s.  No dramatic cinematic moments, but a solid, balanced, strategic 1850 pt game.  Fast playing as well since he fielded like three models and many of mine hung out in transports!

Army

I made some small adaptations to the 1850 pt list I used last week.  In particular, I was originally planning to play Jason’s Dark Angels so I dropped the Thunderfire Cannon and brought some Predators, an extra Plasmagun, etc.:

  • Capt Angholan—Vulkan
  • Librarian Rorschach—Librarian w/ Terminator Armor, Storm Shield
  • Terminators x5 w/ Thunderhammers and Storm Shields
  • Sternguard x5 w/ Drop Pod w/ 3x Combi-Meltas
  • Tacticals x5 w/ Razorback, Powerfist, Plasmagun
  • Tacticals x10 w/ Rhino, Missile Laucher, Meltagun
  • Tacticals x10 w/ Missile Launcher, Flamer
  • Devastators x7 w/ 2x Plasmacannons, 2x Heavy Bolters
  • Landspeeders  x3 w/ Multi-Melta, Heavy Flamer
  • Predators x2 w/ Autocannons, Heavy Bolter sponsons, Hunter-Killer Missiles

Lorenzo brought Coteaz w/ two Jokaero and other henchman, two Dreadknights, four Terminator squads, and some other Librarian HQ.

Kingbreakers man the walls!

Kingbreakers man the walls!

Just waitin' for the shootin' to start.

Just waitin’ for the shootin’ to start.

Battle

Fortunately for me we rolled Vanguard deployment.  Less fortunately we rolled for whatever the Annihilation Mission is currently called.  I kept my usual Sternguard+Rorschach off table in their Drop Pod.  Lorenzo started with Coteaz and his monkey friends hanging out fairly close to my front line, with a squad of Terminators as a buffer between them.  Another group of Termies lurked well back in the center field while the rest went into reserves.  Early fighting had the buffer Terminators trying to flank the Kingbreakers but blocked and eventually eliminated by aggressive Sternguard.

The core of this match was three of Lorenzo’s heavies getting right up in my guys’ grills but being worked over by concentrated shooting and then polished off in assault.  The Terminators + Librarian came down in some sort of Turn 1 no-scatter Deep Strike right on my clustered Heavy Supports’ rear.  They managed to destroy a Predator, but were crippled by the combined weight of multiple incoming Autocannons, Heavy Bolters, Krak Missiles, Plasmacannons, and various Bolter weapons before being finished off by Thunderhammer wielding Terminators.  One Dreadknight Outflanked into a similar position on my Troops’ rear while the other Outflanked on the far table edge and then did some crazy jump move to quickly advance into place.  Each of them met the same fate as the Terminators though.  Even with Kingbreakers’ shooting divided in half there was just too much of it.

The match closed on a similar note.  With those threats dispatched, the Kingbreakers were able to pull back and ping away from a comfortable safety at the Terminator squads advancing on foot up the center field.

Storm on the horizon!

Storm on the horizon!

Outcome

Kingbreakers held the field with 6 kills of Lorenzo’s 9 units, Linebreaker, and Warlord.  Grey Knights claimed 4 Kingbreakers units plus First Blood.

Analysis

Normally Annihilation against a tough, Elite army like Grey Knights gives me much anxiety.  After all, I brought 16 units and Lorenzo only 9, so from the start I really needed to wipe out a large percentage of his tough units and lose a very low percentage of my weaker ones to take a win.  I generally find this to be much harder than making casualty tradeoffs to claim objectives.  Fortunately I had been planning to play Jason’s similar elite-army Deathwing and brought a fair bit of shooting: Melta (Landspeeders and a few other guns), Plasma (Devastators and some extra guns), and sheer volume of fire (Heavy Bolters).  Similarly, I kept in a squad of Thunderhammer Terminators in order to have a good unit to stand up in assault against those Dark Angel/Grey Knight meanies.

Critical to the entire affair though was Vanguard deployment.  I deployed my guys hard against my short edge, tightly clustered up to create concentrated shooting and minimize Lorenzo’s ability to Deep Strike and Outflank in close proximity.  Between my deployment, movement, and Loreno’s Outflanking, the table wound up essentially rotated.  Passersby all thought we were playing on the short table edges.  That was a huge boon to me as it forced Lorenzo’s guys to wade through some heavy shooting while most of my guys just sat tight.

Kingbreakers stare down the long view.

Kingbreakers stare down the long view.

My Librarian again did not do anything impressive, though he did stand there in assault for a good while tieing up some Grey Knight Terminators.

My Terminators though did well this time as closers, knocking off the last couple wounds on a Dreadknight, and eliminating a half squad of Terminators before either could become real problems.  I started them on the table in the middle and in front of my gunline so that they could swing either direction at the first credible threats and be a hard block to either prevent Lorenzo from assaulting my squishier guys, or to sweep in and save the day if he snuck by.  This worked out as well as you could ask, these guys wound up being pivotal to mop up the remnants of tough units that had survived heavy shooting, before they could get onto my other guys and do serious damage.

The Dreadknights I was a little scared of at first, but in many ways they’re actually pretty similar to a unit of Terminators.  Their Gatling Guns put out a scary amount of dice, but at S4 aren’t actually a huge deal.  Meanwhile, they’re pretty tough and serious, but sooner or later they’re going to roll fluke armor save fails and eventually go down if you just keep putting lots of shots on them.  Having the three ‘Speeders was really helpful with this, the Meltas did quite a number on all of Lorenzo’s guys.  It was a definite risk having those easy kill ponits up for grabs.  But I made sure to have them keep their distance and work the terrain.  In 5th edition I really got into this mindset that they had to get in fairly closer to get those critical 1D6 AP boosts to open up vehicles.  Now though I’ve tried to concentrate on using the full 24″ range of the Multi-Melta to keep the ‘Speeders in slightly safer positions and shoot away at tough targets.  It also helps facing a low model count army.  Pretty much anything has a shot at shooting down a Landspeeder with their 10/10/10 armor, so if there’s a bunch of squads standing around without ideal targets they’ll take potshots at the ‘Speeders and eventually knock them down.  With so few units on the board though, the enemy units are all too busy doing other things to ping them just for kicks.

All in all, for a tournament I’m not so sure about my list.  It doesn’t have any capacity to deal with flyers, and with just 2.5 Tactical Squads it has limited ability to hold a couple objectives.  However, it does have a reasonable volume of fire that I think can inflict damage on a few of the small & elite armies floating around PAGE.

There are a few more photos of this and the other games in the Flickr gallery.

Oooh yeah.

Oooh yeah.

40k: 1850pts vs Necrons

Posted on by tjkopena

kingbreakers-iconAgain last night a good chunk of the PAGE crew was at Redcap’s for Thursday 40k. Lovell and I got in a great game of 1850 points between Necrons and Kingbreakers.

Army

I used the same 1500 pt list from last week plus Terminators, a Predator, and a few bits and bobs to bring it up to 1850; basically what I had with me to make up a list on the spot:

    • Capt Angholan—Vulkan
    • Librarian Rorschach—Librarian w/ Terminator Armor, Storm Shield
    • Terminators x5 w/ Thunderhammers and Storm Shields
    • Sternguard x5 w/ Drop Pod w/ Locator Beacon, 3x Combi-Meltas
    • Tacticals x5 w/ Teleport Homer, Razorback, Powerfist
    • Tacticals x10 w/ Rhino, Missile Laucher, Meltagun
    • Tacticals x10 w/ Missile Launcher, Flamer
    • Devastators x7 w/ 2x Plasmacannons, 2x Heavy Bolters
    • Thunderfire Cannon
    • Landspeeders  x3 w/ Multi-Melta, Heavy Flamer
    • Predator w/ Autocannon, Heavy Bolter sponsons, Hunter-Killer Missile

Lovell dropped a lot of high powered stuff. Light on troops with just a large squad of Warriors and another of Immortals, two squads of Deathmark snipers, squad of Destroyers, two Monoliths, a Night Scythe flyer, and a whole passel of HQs loaded up with Mind-Scarabs, Tachyon Cannons, Warscythes, and nonsense like that.

Battle

In an astounding chance discovery in the sector datastacks, Imperial clerics unearth a potential location on Lancastria XXXVI for the Sword of James, long lost archeotech of the mighty warrior.  Kingbreakers rush to the location, but their very activity awakens a previously unknown Necron tomb sleeping deep underground.  Sternguard Squad Harmon and Librarian Rorschach open battle by dropping square into the enemy to assassinate the leaders and unseat the automatons’ control circuits.  Instead they land in a bitter and losing fight for their lives, parasitic Mind Scarabs worming into their own thoughts and turning battle brother against battle brother.

Hey, stop flinging beetles at me! Stop it!

Hey, stop flinging beetles at me! Stop it!

Meanwhile the forward Kingbreakers are dashed against waves of tachyon pulses, beams of light punching through hulls like parchment.  Captain Angholan throws aside the smoldering halves of his Razorback and leaps from the wreckage, already on the run toward the precious relic.  Kingbreakers all around pour fire into the Necron troops advancing in lockstep but for every two knocked down the bits recoalesce into a new warrior that stands right back up.  The skies turn dark as Necron Monoliths phase into existence and teleport in lines of troop reinforcements.

Casualties mount for the Imperium but Angholan stays focused, ignoring all incoming fire and clicking death in a headlong rush toward the relic.  Necron troops reach the holy device and immediately rotate as one, fleeing the field of battle in unison.  Marines all concentrate on clearing a path for their driven leader in hot pursuit.  Squad Titus engages in a deadly dance with the Necron warlord, as much a high stakes mind game as it is physical close combat, while Techmarine Jansen hoes his Thunderfire Cannon dangerously close, ramming round after round of high explosives into the machines.  His position finally blasted beyond tenable by strange particle clouds and gauss beams, he runs after his leader just in time for a desperate long range plasma cutter execution of a Destroyer Lord intent on analyzing Angholan’s constituent atoms.

Ohmygod, again with the beetles?!

Ohmygod, again with the beetles?!

Death passing him by fractions at every moment, Angholan finally slams into the Necron Warriors fleeing with the relic.  Circuits and servos fly in all directions as his rage filled boots shatter the robots even as his burning sword cleaves them in half.  He rips through the squad like an earthquake through a mountain, but is not fast enough.  His bellow of frustration is heard across the field of war as his sword swings through clean air, the last standing Necron having finally reached a lock and beamed out with the relic fractions of a moment before its demise could land.

Outcome

This was a nailbiter that went a full seven turns and was ultimately won by one model standing tall on the relic with everything else dead around him.  Lovell picked up the Relic, First Blood, and Linebreaker for 5 points while I claimed Warlord and Linebreaker for two.  Victory: Necrons!

Come back here with that, you robot!

Come back here with that, you robot!

Analysis

I haven’t actually played much against the latest Necron book, but clearly will be seeing a lot of it given its current popularity.  Basically, Necrons got buff again, but even better, they got buff in interesting ways.  Their weaponry doesn’t actually seem crazy overpowered, but as follows tradition they have a lot of options for taking apart vehicles.  Similarly, most of their guys aren’t strong in close combat but they’re robust enough to stand around for a bit.  Meanwhile, some of their HQs are actually pretty good in assault.  A Destroyer Lord with a Warscythe can cut up some dudes pretty well, and the Mind Scarabs are just crazy.  Leadership doesn’t seem like a huge deal until you’re taking test after test and slapping yourself with your force weapon when you fail.  Lovell was very successful at making my guys fight themselves with this.

Like many people, The Relic is not my favorite mission.  Having just one objective, and a mobile one at that, tends to make the game focus more on assault, as well as making it difficult to trade casualties for ground like you can with more objectives.  However, I did a reasonable job here of just focusing on the Relic.  In particular, even before deployment I’d decided there was almost nothing my army could do to take down two monoliths and the flyer so I literally just ignored them completely.  I figured I had enough guys that as long as Lovell didn’t or couldn’t apply them directly to the leading edge of my push to the relic, I’d lose a ton of guys but still be able to claim it.  That almost worked out, but I should have started moving some of that leading edge up earlier in the game.  Another inch and Angholan would have assaulted the relic-bearing unit a turn earlier and probably wiped it out, another Necron Warrior down a turn earlier and they would have dropped the relic, etc., etc..

One interesting thing was a good job Lovell did of managing to use the very large flyer base at a critical point to prevent some of my guys from being able to assault some of his guys and free up Angholan to go after the relic.

Everybody in!

Everybody in!

Terminators: Yet again useless!  I did take a couple Teleport Homers and Locator Beacons this time to bring them down precisely, but the ones I really needed got wiped out before the unit arrived.  So, these guys came down once and scattered themselves right back into reserves.  Then they came down again and were just picked apart by a nearby Monolith and Lovell’s warlord before they could do anything at all except stand around looking menacing.

Again I found it useful to have the Landspeeders separated, preventing them from all being targeted at once.  That’s basically begging to give up First Blood, but here it didn’t matter as Lovell could just as easily rip open a Rhino or Razorback, which is what he wound up doing.

The Thunderfire Cannon came up pretty big.  The table was relatively open, so it had a lot of direct fire sightlines.  It made a super splashy entrance, knocking down 16 Necron Warriors in a squad with its first shot.  Unfortunately 12 of them stood right back up, enabled by the Res Orb their nearby HQ held, and that unit wound up being the game winner.  That would be the theme of the game.  However, the cannon did take out a bunch of guys throughout, and more importantly scared Lovell enough that he concentrated a lot of shooting on it, sparing my other guys.  Fortunately, such a small unit doesn’t have to worry overly much about large blasts.  Even better, the new 6e artillery rules and the Thunderfire’s statline (T7, W2) make it very durable.  The Techmarine himself even came up with a big kill once the gun itself was down.  I was a fan of this unit in 5e, and I think it’s really good now.

All in all, this was an excellent and fluid game, particularly notable for having a very large amount of close combat assaults, which I usually find to really drag a game down.  Just a few more photos are in the Flickr gallery.

Yep...

Yep…