A refinement of the armored company I tried against the Knights: I replaced the useless Basilisks with Lord Solar and Kasrkin in a Taurox. I was up against, surprisingly, the Thousand Sons. Oh well, at least the chem cannons might be useful. (Spoiler: they were.)
Mission: Tipping Point/Burden of Trust/Inspired Leadership.
Scouting Cultists already up the midfield.
A lot of scouting on my side as well.
Battle round 1
The Thousand Sons took first turn and double doom bolt-ed down a Sentinel. In return, I deployed the Kasrkin bomb, but 8 out of 10 died to overwatch. They were especially bad in this matchup, as all the Rubrics had flamers. Oh well, they died doing what they loved: dying for the Emperor.
At least I moved up the midfield, took all objectives...
...and charged into a Rubric squad.
Battle round 2
Well, Magnus had some things to say to my Taurox.
Brave Cultists "cleansing" the midle objective.
My turn 2! Bring in all the reserves. Move in on the damn Cultists. And form a battle tank triangle (lower left corner) to catch sight of the double-cabaling Sorcerer.
Step 1: Bathe the Infernal Master and his squad in chemicals. They died.
Step 2: Shoot the Tzaangor Enlightened with a hydra. They died.
Step 3: Bathe the Cultists in chemicals and finish them with heavy stubbers.
Step 4. PROFIT
Step 5: Fire a load of HK missiles at the Vortex Beast and do almost nothing. Fire all the tanks at the Rubric squad but leave the character alone. Sigh.
Well to be honest, killing all that would have been a game winning move, but it was just funny to see the random support tanks take down squad after squad, and the battle tank triangle struggle with killing a couple of marines.
Not pictured, the silent heroes of this round: Tempestus Aquilons, scoring both Behind Enemy Lines and Establish Locus... right under Magnus' nose.
At the end of round 2, I was slightly ahead in points, but the game was pretty tight. I managed to destroy a lot of the chaff, but the heavy hitters were just coming out.
Battle round 3
Speaking of the heavy hitters. But the termies got a load of a very successful overwatch, with 3 dying to the Dorn Commander.
Similar to my previous turn, Ahriman and his 5-man squad were enough to kill a Hydra and cripple a Hellhound, but Magnus and his termies couldn't kill anything. Many tanks were crippled though. I was especially proud of the Rogal Dorn. Having lived through a double doombolt last turn, it began at 11 wounds this round. I spent 3 CP on smoke and ablative plating, and she lived through it at 2 wounds.
Unfortunate battleshocks but all retreats went well. Then I made the mistake of splitfiring into Magnus and the Termies in the hopes of taking the objective, but what I achieved was killing neither.
We were still close in points.
Battle round 4
This started off with the Wrath of Magnus (shoutout to my old school Thousand Sons players), killing Hellhounds left and right. One exploded, hurting everybody. Both Tank Commanders also died, but the Leman Russ shot on death (thanks to my gracious opponent for going back to this, I forgot) and obliterated the Terminators.
Then the Exterminator and a Hydra killed off Magnus, who also exploded.
Fireworks everywhere.
At this point the Thousand Sons pulled only un-achievable action-oriented objectives, whereas I accomplished both Bring it Down and Sabotage with the Sentinel hiding out on an objective.
Battle round 5
But the Vortex Beast charged forth to take down my Hydra for a double dose of Storm Hostile Objective and No Prisoners.
In my final turn, I tried a just-for-fun shooting to see if I can table the Thousand Sons, but I did literally 0 damage.
At least I scored a lot of primaries and Containment.
Conclusion
It's not much, but it's honest work.
It was fun to see the Thousand Sons in action again. Their mortal wound output is fearsome, but they melt away under duress.
As for my own list... I liked this iteration a lot better.
The detachment rule is still worthless, or at least I never used it, two games in a row. Stratagems are OK, and the fact that all of them are focused on vehicles makes this tank list viable. That means the Lord Solar is a welcome addition. At first I thought it was too much, hoarding a load of CPs by turn 2; but then I started spending them left and right, and they made a difference.
Backline infantry for objective holders are a must. I'm also glad that the Cyclops wasn't sent to Legends. They were nerfed to 0OC, but still function well as screens. In the end, the Termies did not use their go-back-to-reserve enhancement, but if they did, they'd have found my backlines secure. One deep striking unit is also a must; the Aquilons got me a lot of points this game, just like last time.
The Kasrkin bomb was disappointing, but it was just a bad matchup for the girls. With every angle covered by competent overwatch, I might as well not had deployed them turn 1; but I wanted to try out this new tactic anyway.
Hellhounds are cool, and I still think chem cannons are the optimal choice. This time they did work against marines.
Hydras are hit and miss; they did nothing last game, but blasted away at flying units happily this game. Still, for their points, they are worth it as screens if nothing else.
Finally, the Dorn and Russes are the true heavy hitters; but they are very swingy. Needing the move order means hitting on 4+; if the enemy has 4+ invulnerables, expect to do everything or nothing.
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