My first two games were against Chaos Space Marines. The goal of the first game was to see how a fully loaded out command squad would handle a less than ideal situation. I've done this in the past and found it to be helpful in learning what upgrades to spring for and how the squad is best used. I dropped the squad in a Land Raider Crusader and ran them straight at a squad of Chaos bikers with a Korne lord leading the way, with a pair of Maulerfiends backing them up. I maneuvered up and dumped my guys out three inches away expecting to land some hurt on the bikers before the Maulerfiends came to back up the Chaos Lord. And as became the trend for most of the game, I rolled two ones failing my three inch charge. The game at this point began the downward trend to a mop up and with a little bit of flailing, lost the game by turn three with my only points being First Blood from a blown up Rhino. Despite some really bad rolling, I was impressed by how much abuse the command squad took. They tied up the bike squad the whole game and did their fair share of damage, beating most of the squad.
For our second game I reintroduced tactical planning for the command squad. My opponent spread his forces across the long board edge and I opted for edge denial avoiding his Maulerfiends. For this game it was my Techmarine's turn to bring a lackluster attitude to the battle. But the command squad, shamed by the previous game, roared into the back field smashing all foes before them. The game was going much better for my Templar this time around and I felt good about how I was playing tactually. I had set up his Maulerfiends to run through a gauntlet of high strength weapons fire, but my dice abandoned me on turn three, seeing my landspeeder fail to wound with its multi-melta and a full Crusader Squad fail its zeal to run off the table after taking one casualty. While I lost this game as well, it was nip and tuck until the end. The close game combined with a fun opponent created the type of games I love to play. The bad rolls on both sides were cause for laughter and both games were fun to play.
My last game of the afternoon was a pleasant surprise. Both of us showed up to play other people and happened to have time to play. Going into the game I knew I had to move quick. My opponent opted for fewer troops, running two Crusader Squads, to bring three Stormtalons and two Land Raider Crusaders. I hadn't planned to play extra games and the army I had brought was by no means a take on all comers list. I had no answer for his fliers and instead tried to get to the center, we were playing the relic mission, to counter his charge. He wisely kept his troops penned up in his Land Raiders and our Land Raiders held a duel. The Land Raider duel was one of the highlights of the game as we danced around each other's melta range. I was able to crack open one of his Land Raiders and my Land Raider went down in flames when the Stormtalons came in from reserve. My opponent was forced to drop all of his Stormtalons into hover to shoot up the command squad allowing my bikes and command squad to get into combat with them. But my assault woes for the day continued as I failed to hit with my bikes. By holding his troops inside the Land Raiders they were able to hide out from most of the fire frenzy winning the game in the end.
It was fun to see someone else running Black Templar, since I don't get to see them on the board often. And even more so since it was an experienced tournament player. I learned a ton during the game and in our discussion after the game was over. I look forward to facing him again, and we talked about both playing Templar in the event at our local store this Saturday. I'll be doing other posts throughout this week as I prepare for the event.
My takeaway from the day was that a command squad is awesome. I probably wouldn't take one in a game smaller than 1850, but they earn their points back if only to give my Chaplain Feel No Pain. As I figured I would, I spent way too many points on the command squad. The banner options we currently have offer too little to afford their points, especially since the squad can buy counterattack at three points a model. This is a pity as I love the way my banner looks on the board. Here's me hoping we get some great options for banners the way Dark Angels received the Banner of Devastation. But the Command Squad forces my opponent to deal with them allowing other units the freedom to maneuver. The apothecary is an outright stud, between giving Feel No Pain to the unit and wounding on a four in close combat he earns his keep and then some. The Command Squad only gets better with two special weapons. I'm going to be playing with some combinations for these slots to see what will be most helpful to how I envision the unit being used. And the cherry on top of the sundae of awesome is the Company Champion. I modeled him with the Power Halberd to make use of the Power Axe stats, which mauls through just about anything. I have more playtesting to do before I settle on exactly how I want to use them in competitive play, but I can only imagine the Command Squad will get better in the coming codex.
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