I successfully got some Raptors assembled and painted in Night Lords colors, so I decided to try out the Dread Talons detachment for my first Pariah Nexus game of Terraform. In keeping with the theme, I opted for close range units that would trigger the battle shocks tests as much as possible. Unfortunately for the army, I was up against Knights. Nevertheless, I gave it my best shot.
Battle round 1
I advanced the Rhino into the center ruin, hiding for another turn.
I sent the bikers to take an objective for Extend battle lines, and also start terraforming it. Of course, the Armigers immediately took it away, and their ridiculous OC meant that they could simply start terraforming themselves. There was also an Eversor assassin hiding in the center, who also took the center objective and started terraforming it.
Battle round 2
I decided to go all in, stopping all the actions on the objectives. Raptors with Lord and Rubrics on the left side.
Chosen in the middle, with Obliterator support.
Haarken's raptors on the right, with the Legionaries running cover to cover.
The raptors did pitifully in the shooting phase, but the bikers took off 8-9 wounds with their meltas, then charged in to take out the terraforming Armiger. Objective still belongs to the knights, though.
The Chosen simply slaughtered the assassin.
The unsung heroes in the top right corner - 5 Warp Talons doing Establish Locus and Behind Enemy Lines.
The Rubrics rolled very poorly on their flamers, but the Raptors then shot and charged and got in, killing another Armiger and stopping all terraforming actions.
Then, it was the Knights' turn, and boy did they not hold back. Warp Talons down to 1, Rubrics down to 3, Obliterators dead, Bikers dead, and all Chosen died, leaving only the characters. While some Armigers did battleshock, the amount of killing was horrendous.
And of course, they held the objectives for primary.
Battle round 3
I sent whatever I had left into this Armiger, but failed to kill it.
I drew Assassinate; New Orders; drew Area Denial. I tried to go for the big knight, which was a mistake, but what can you do.
Haarken's squad once again failed to shoot meaningfully, not landing any plasma damage on the blue Armiger. They also meh'd their charge, only landing 4 in engagement range on the Paladin, doing 1 MW. They fought well-ish, but the Knight simply trampled over them.
High toughness makes for a bad time, even with the Chaos Lord going Super Saiyan, doing 1 wound.
Battle round 4
This is what I had starting battle round 4, plus 2 Rubrics. Not only did my Rhino blow up, but the white Armiger as well, killing the small Raptor squad and their Lord.
Secondaries were of course impossible, and I had nothing to hold primaries. I threw in the towel.
Conclusion
I don't have the actual score, but we were very close up to battle round 4, with me scoring secondaries and the knights doing primary. However, at that point I no longer had an army to score with, and the Knights were all over the table, including my backfield. Curse you, Armiger from reserves!
Now I'm not immune to confirmation bias, and I admit that I did not have high expectations of this detachment. It was super cool to see the knights battle shocking all across the battlefield turns 2 and 3, but it did not have the effect I had hoped. Attacking battle shocked units enabled my stratagems, but first you have to survive the turn, and they are already up and close, given the 12".
Having said that, the detachment is not a total wash, but I played it totally wrong. With the Raptors in the detachment picture, I did go all in on jump pack units and the apparent synergy. However, looking back, I should have had a much larger shooting contingent, to battle shock the enemy without going in close. And a buttload of cultists, especially accursed cultists scouting up, to be in range to trigger the detachment battle shock and modifier. Only then should the marines be sent in for surgical strikes, safeguarding their squishy 2 wound bodies. That's my 2 cents, and maybe I'll try that after I paint up some tanks.
But that just seems like a lot of extra steps for some? gain. Every turn, I was under the impression that the same list would have done a lot better with Veterans/Zealots/Raiders.
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