I wanted to try out some new models I finished - 2x5 Warp Talons and a second unit of Bikers. With less of a focus on shooting, I abandoned the Veterans of the Long War and decided on Pactbound Zealots. The Custodes tried out the Talons of the Emperor detachment.
The game: Purge the Foe. Good thing the Custodes army includes some Sisters of Silence.
Battle round 1
The Custodes had first turn, advanced up the field, took some objectives and did Cleanse. I advanced up as well and took a shot at an exposed Sisters of Silence unit with my bikes. One sister survived, denying me 8 points and leaving my bikes exposed.
I was originally very careful in measuring out safe distances from the melee powerhouse Custodes units, but halfway through I forgot what I was doing - excitement, I guess.
Battle round 2
The Custodes drew favorable secondaries and took full advantage of my blunders.
Not only did they take the bottom objective with a disembarking unit of Sisters...
...but they also shot and charged through my lines...
...leaving me at a points deficit and erasing all my frontline units.
I had to counterstrike immediately, otherwise I would be blocked in my zone, again.
I focused all my effort on my left flank, dropping in both my Obliterator squads. Their shooting was wildly successful, killing several Allarus. Had I made all my charges, I would have probably been at too great of an advantage going forwards. However, my Chosen decided to roll a 3, and reroll into a 3. I had both units of Possessed and a unit of Warp Talons make their charges, but even with Devastating Wounds, I barely scratched the front unit of Guardians.
Battle round 3
With the Guardians stratagem'd to retreat and still do stuff, there was enough shooting and charging to clear off some of my units.
The Bikes moved up on the flank.
The Guardians went into my Chosen and the Blade Champion precision'd my Master of Executions - I couldn't even try my combo.
At the end of the turn, the severely depleted Allarus retreated into the Land Raider. At least the jetbikes failed their rerollable charge as well, allowing me hope for the coming turn.
Starting with Skinshifting an Obliterator back into existence.
I decided to focus on the bikes, and kill the Rhino for additional primary points. My center units just lined up to charge the Raider. I wasn't expecting to kill it, but a hail mary for Area Denial and at least tying it down seemed worth it.
I drew no relevant secondaries, but dropped the second unit of Warp Talons in the enemy backfield just in case for next turn.
Obliterator shooting was again very successful, and I whittled down the bikes, with only their captain remaining. The Chosen then mucked up the Rhino.
With a combination of my Rhino tank shocking, and bad rolls for saves, I managed to take down the Raider to 2 wounds. No points, but fun nonetheless.
Battle round 4
The bike captain is annoyingly mobile with the end-of-turn retreat maneuver.
Stuff disembarked from the Land Raider in order to take the middle. Then the Raider shot the Rhino, which exploded, killing the Raider back, and wounding everything around. It was glorious.
The fun was short lived, as the Custodes charged and killed my center units.
The bike captain charged my Havocs, and I intervened with the Obliterators. Nothing died.
I sent in the Chosen to clear up the middle, and they fought heroically, killing the Guardians.
Battle round 5
Amazingly, the bike captain failed his morale check and staid in combat, dying to the Obliterators. The Allarus captain retreated, shot and charged the Chosen to death.
I then focused all my flank on the Allarus captain, shooting him down.
The bravest cultists in the world came out of their hiding place to shoot the sole surviving Sister, but she made all her saves.
Unwilling to risk a failed charge, I had the one remaining Obliterator unit indirect fire her to death.
Conclusion
In the end, I scored 69 points (nice!) +10 for painted army bonus, with the Custodes close behind at 63.
Units wise, the Custodes are very strong. Their weakness is probably their cost. The Obliterators are great counters with their 4 damage shots, provided that at least some 4+ saves are failed. But whatever they catch in melee, dies. The movement stratagems are nice, but the extra AP of their previous detachment takes the win, I think.
On the chaos side, I am still experimenting with the Chosen. They seem great on paper, but they die very quickly once out of their transport and they need the right target to charge. Provided they don't fail their rerollable 5". The Chaos Lord is not very useful in this detachment, as literally no stratagems are battle tactics, and he is left doing free rerolls.
Obliterators are great coming in from deep strike. Otherwise, their 4" move would leave them behind and unable to pick their targets. They are very swingy with random number of shots, but a Helbrute in close to give both effects of Dark Pact helps a lot.
Speaking of Helbrutes, they die to a stiff breeze. I think the right way to use them is ignore their damage potential (they did a combined 0 wounds this game, I think) and regard them purely as support pieces. Any backline shooting greatly benefits, especially in this detachment.
I didn't get to properly use one squad of Havocs, and the other did... okay, I guess. They separated from their Helbrute early in the game, otherwise I might have seen more damage from their heavy weapons.
And so I'll rotate Veterans of the Long War with shooty lists and Pactbound Zealots/Renegade Raiders with more melee lists and independent units. I'm now working on a bunch of Raptors, perhaps I'll also give the Dread Talons a spin when they are done.
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