A Day of Dice

The 2500 pt event has come and gone, and the Templar acted decidedly mediocre.  Since this will be my last event with the current codex, I wanted to go out swinging.  The event was only an afternoon long and we each played two games, and each of us went home with a prize, the prize support was pretty good for a free event.

My first game was against an Ork player, and someone I've played against a number of times.  This was the first time I had faced against his Orks, as he normally runs Chaos Space Marines.  It should be noted that in previous weeks my opponent had been teasing me about using dice that didn't match my army.  When it came to purchasing dice I went with the cheapest option to spend more money on models.  When I arrived at the event, the Ork player walked up and and handed me two boxes of black dice and it seemed only right that my first outing with the dice be against him.  As you'll see here, the Ork player must have had an agreement with the dice giving him the win in the end.  But it was a thoughtful gift and I was pleased to see him go on to win the event.

Our first game was the Emperor's Will and we deployed in the strange angle deployment from the book.  Looking at his list, the Ork player brought a large number of vehicles and 2+ armor orks.  He opted to deploy and go first and lined a bunch of trucks up to rush around terrain and get into my deployment zone.  When I deployed, I set up my Land raider to create a choke point for his two battlewagons, the Land Raider and Assault Squad were assigned to deal with the battle wagons and I scattered my crusader missile squads around in terrain giving myself some lines of fire to support each other.  My two Rhinos were placed on the far side to keep them out of the main fighting in order for them to have a shot at running for the objective in the backfield.  The Lascannon squad camped on my home objective and manned the Icarus Lascannon and the Plasma Cannon squad set up to support all the missile squads.  I opted out of seizing the initiative and with night fighting in place, we began the game.

Turn 1 Orks
As expected, the Ork horde rushed forward snapping off a few shots as they came.  I think they killed one marine causing me to zeal forward, which gave me the exact movement I was planning on taking anyways.  So far so good.

Turn 1 Templar
I move up my Assault squad to face off against one battlewagon and the Land Raider Crusader moves up to block off the other and dumps out the command squad to attack.  My rhinos blasted around the edge to get into the backfield.  With the small movements done, I unloaded my all my heavy weapons.  For this event, I brought a ridiculous amount of missiles and at strength 8 I targeted the Ork trucks.  In the storm of missiles I only succeeded in glancing down two trucks!  My Land Raider unloaded into the Ork Battlewagon immobilizing it with the multi-melta.  With nothing else to do, the command squad followed suit and used its meltagun to snag an explosion damage result.  I had hoped to be able to charge the Ork warboss inside the battlewagon and could have benefitted from the bonuses from a charge, but had to settle for counterattack.  The Assault Squad darted forward to attack the other Battlewagon and used a meltabomb to blow apart the wagon, dumping out the weird boy and his squad.  It was a disappointing round of shooting for the Templar with a high number of 2s rolled leaving his vehicles free.  Thankfully I had spread out my marines with the intention of picking off the Orks as they piled out of wrecked vehicles.  This ended up blocking off the main paths to my objective and forced the Orks to fight their way through my marines.

Turn 2 Orks
Turn 2 for the Orks saw a lot of charges.  Both of the Ork fliers came zipping onto the battlefield and I took the opportunity to shoot the Icaraus Lascannon to target one of the Dakka jets.  The Lascannon missed leaving the flier unmolested and free to tear through my rhinos.  The Templar picked off a few as they charged in but for the most part the Orks fell into combat with few casualties.  My Emperor's Champion challenged the warboss and the two of them settled down to slug it out.  As the turn played out, the new black dice helped in slaughtering the Templar.  By the end of my turn I had only a couple marines left in each combat.  The squad with the Warboss stomped on most of the Command Squad and the Weird boy's squad chewed their way through the Assault Squad.

Turn 2 Templar
I was determined to put some of the hurt on the Ork army in my second turn and my Marshal and Shooty terminators came deepstriking into the Ork back field.  My Stormtalon failed to come in.  I shimmied back the Land Raider to drop some pressing Ork Trucks moving along the board edge, and with the vehicles mostly dealt with, my missiles opened up with a slew of Frag grenades.  Similar to my previous shooting phase, the missile shots did not go as planned.  Each missile and Plasma cannon shot tended to scatter.  A lot.  But the amusing aspect of the scatters was that they were scattering onto enemy models locked in combat.  It was funny the first time it scattered.  And as it happened time and time again, it seemed that no matter where I placed the template it would scatter towards the nearest combat.  Close combat saw more Templar dying with few Ork casualties.  What my Templar couldn't seem to deal with was the Nob Mega-armor.  Through all the combats, I only seemed to kill one nob.  It was almost laughable how little I could do in the close combat phases.

Turn 3 Orks
By turn three the Orks who weren't in combat were getting there.  The Templar, while losing models by the bucket, were somehow holding back the Green Tide where it counted.  Many Orks had been rerouted and were struggling to get to my back corner.  We both knew the center was about to break, the only question was when?  The Landraider was still running free causing problems.  But in the combat phase of Ork Turn 3 three things happened.  The TO announced that we would play through turn four.  The remaining Templar in the center crumbled and were overwhelmed.  The Ork player realized that there were no Ork scoring units within reach of his home objective.  He had successfully ham-stringed my rhino units keeping them from capturing the objective, but I was sitting on my own objective with line breaker and first blood.

Turn 3 Templar
The Stormtalon came flying in with a vengeance immediately scored three penetrating shots on one of the ork fliers.  But my excitement dropped as my opponent rolled three sixes for his jink save.  Hilariously, the flier was going to stick around.  I decided to shore up my defenses and shot up the orks creeping up on the defense line.  The Templar shooting phase went much better and the Ork squads were thinned out and made much more manageable.

Turn 4 Orks
As expected the Orks charged into the two squads behind the Aegis Defense Line.  But the most surprising event was the Weird Boy.  Calling up his ability, the Weird Boy found himself and the squad deep striking and landing right on top of the objective!  Combat ensued with the Templar stepping up and winning combat.  But the orks passed their leadership after the nob smacked some sense into the boyz.

Turn 4 Templar
I was going for broke on this turn.  My Land Raider had fallen foul of an Ork power klaw the turn before, so I dropped by Stormtalon into hover and maneuvered the flier and my remaining Land Speeder facing the Weird boy squad.  Both opened fire and shredded the squad down to one remaining nob.  And with the combats running down the game ended

Final Score
Orks 4 (Slay the Warlord, Objective)
Templar 2 (First Blood, Line Breaker)


Game 2 Black Templar vs Guard (Deathwatch Allies)

For this game the mission type was the Relic and the deployment was Dawn of War.  My opponent won the choice of sides and first deployment.  Going into this game, I thought capturing and holding the relic was going to be difficult.  In his list, my opponent brought quite a few problem units.  Two blob squads sat on either side of the table, while two squadrons of Leman Russ tanks with a squad of three Hydras sat in the center.  A rhino with five Deathwatch sat ready to surge forward towards the relic. The board had four seperate towers, two in each of out deployment zone.  In one tower, my oppenent placed his Devastator Squad and a Heavy Weapons team with missile launchers.  And a Heavy Weapons team with Lascannons sat in the other tower.  I set up my Land raider off center, away from the Leman Russ tanks, to try to get into the back field and keep the relic out of his backfield.  The two rhinos sat side by said further from the tanks and I hid my two Land Speeders behind buildings.  I counter deployed my Plasma Cannon to drop AP2 blasts on the Devastator Squad.  My missile squads were scattered around my deployment zone to deal with his Drop Pod Dreadnought, should it land in my deployment zone.  The Lascannon squad setup behind the Aegis Defense Line across from my opponent's tanks.

Turn 1 IG
My opponent attacked aggressively with his drop pod dread and landed it behind my line of troops.  To my surprise he ignored my Land Raider and instead focused on one of my rhinos.  He easily destroyed the vehicle and my squad spilled out.  All his heavy weapons poured fire into my various squads and most of my squads avoided any serious injury with my night fighting cover.  His rhino with Deathguard drove up and jumped out to claim the relic and one of the blob squads ran up to support the relic holders.

Turn 1 Templar
I moved my Land Speeders around to ensure that I had a backup Multi-Melta to fire at the Dreadnought and pushed my remaining rhino forward.  The Land Raider moved forward and took a Melta shot at the closest Leman Russ failing to do any significant damage.  The Command Squad inside, jumped out and arranged themselves to attack the blob squad.  The flamer fired but the rest of the squad held back to keep themselves within charge range.  The Assault Squad leapt forward out into no man's land to threaten the other blob squad and one of the Leman Russ Squadrons.  A few shots were taken at the Heavy Weapons teams and Devastator Squad, but only a couple wounds were delivered.  The first Land Speeder fired his Multi-melta and destroyed the Dreadnought.  Without anything else to shoot at, the other speeder fired at the drop pod.  I scored a glance and a weapon destroyed, which ended up helping me in the long range as the Drop Pod had a Deathwind Missile launcher, something I wasn't aware of until after the fact.  The Command Squad charged into the blob squad and began the long never ending battle.  The Emperor's Champion battled and killed a sergeant in a challenge and the attached Techpriest removed a couple of the Templar.

Turn 2 IG
The Leman Russes move up and lay down a torrent of fire into the Assault Squad.  The Assault Squad weathers the for a while, but eventually fell to the overwhelming "first rank fire, second rank fire" from the blob squad.  The Devastators focus on the other rhino and bring it to a grinding halt, without exploding the vehicle.  The Hydras take several potshots at the Land Raider but fail to do so much as scratch the paint.  The unit with the relic begin the slow trek back to their deployment zone, while the combat between the Command Squad and the blob squad continues.  The Emperor's Champion slays another sergeant, and the Command Squad continued to hack away at the IG.  Once again the Techpreist peels away a couple Templar with his Power fist and Power Axe.

Turn 2 Templar
Both the Stormtalon and the Terminators came in this round.  The Terminators scattered onto the far side of the building, taking them effectively out of the main action.  The Stormtalon, feeling especially productive, targets the Hydras and blows up two of them with a flurry of penetrating shots.  The remaining Hydra sat with only a single hull point remaining.  The Land Raider, concerned about the fleeing Deathwatch, moves forward and unloads his weapons on the squad.  The squad falls to an above average three rends from the assault cannon and all the fire from the Hurrican Bolters.  The ignored Plasma Cannon dropped a template directly on the Devastator Squad and Missile IG team killing the majority of them.  Both units break and flee towards their board edge, but stay in bounds.  The terminators, unhappy about their scatter, took out their fury on the nearest Lascannon IG squad leaving only a solitary wound on one Lascannon.  Everything else focused on the Leman Russes, but fail to keep pace with the rest of the army and the Leman Russes go free.  The Emperor's Champion kills yet another IG leader and all but the Chaplain and the Apothecary fall to the Tech priest.  At this point the blob squad is looking rather thin.

Turn 3 IG
The remaining Hydra turns and avenges his fallen brethren shooting down the Templar Stormtalon.  The far blob squad hurries over to tar pit the terminators hardly doing any damage but sacrificing soldiers to keep the Marshal out of the main battle.  A command squad joins the fight with the Chaplain and Emperor's Champion adding more bodies to soak up the Chaplain's attacks.  The Techpriest challenges the Emperor's Champion and Champion manages to make his invulnerable saves.  The Chaplain at this point has taken two wounds and with a single wound left stays, leaving only the Champion and the Chaplain.

Turn 3 Templar.  At this point the Land Raider is dueling with the Leman Russes and kills two of them from one Squadron, killing one with melta and getting a lucky penetration and explosion from the rending Assault Cannon.  What's left of the two rhino squads join the combat with the Champion and Chaplain and their added weight finally collapses the blob squad.  The Champion is slain from a power fist attack, the Techpriest flees, getting caught and held in combat with the Chaplain.  The other two squads bounce out and begin a run towards the relic.

Turn 4 IG
The Leman Russes and all remaining vehicles move forward and destroy the two rhino squads.  Making sure that neither of us can capture the relic.  The Chaplain survives combat but fails to wound the his opponent.

Turn 4 Templar
At this point winning is a long shot.  A remaining missile squad dashes forward into the enemy deployment zone to snag line breaker.  The Land Raider moves around a building and fires into the command squad hoping to dislodge my opponent's warlord.  The Land Raider forces a check but the command squad easily passes.  With only the Tech priest and Chaplain combat mattering we skipped the terminator combat.  The Chaplain dealt two quick wounds to the tech priest, who easily passes his armor save with a five and a six.  The Techpriest attacks back at initiative one and only manages to do one single wound.  With a final roll of four the Chaplain passes his armor save and the game ends in a tie.


All in all, it was a great day of wargaming.  Because Gencon is this week, there were a lot fewer players than usual, which probably influenced the fact that we all received prizes.  I ended up with a set of skull dice, which I was pleased with.  I've thought about picking some up, but have yet to do so and they'll make great wound and hull point markers.

As always, leave your questions and comments below.  Let me know what you think about the upcoming changes to the Templars.  And Thanks for Reading!

The Command Squad Rides

Against all odds, I ended up with a completed command squad ready for my games last week.  I got three games in against some very competitive tournament players and had a ton of fun.  One special treat for me was playing against Black Templar.  I have never faced a Templar army, and it was an extra treat to see how a more competitive player would play.

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.  

Like a Champ

I'm still chipping away at my Command Squad and I'm afraid I won't have them completely finished for my game on friday.  I got busy last night on several other things, and didn't start painting until much later.  As a result, only the company champion ended up painted.  I was a little concerned about the amount of gold going on the model, but after dulling it down with washes I think it hit a good sheen to match the rest of the model.

One of the unexpected additions to the mini was the helm.  I had originally planned to place the maltese cross off center in white with red detailing; it was late and to my horror the cross looked terrible.  The only aspect I liked was how the white stood out against the black and gold.  So the rest of the helm ended up white and the accent stripe went on in the style of the pre-heresy imperial fists.  While I took the long way around, I still accidentally accomplished my end goal of making the helm into a focal point for the model.

An aspect of my painting that has come a long way since I started is my power weapon skills.  I've done a variety of styles from plain blue with flecked shades of light blue and white to a gradient style.  But, I think my favorite is the lightening effect.  I based my method on the tutorial from the blog From the Warp (one of my favorite places to go for beginner tutorials.  You can find the tutorial here: http://fromthewarp.blogspot.com/2009/09/power-swords-space-hulk-style.html  The large difference between what I did here was using two different washes, both nightshade and violet.  The nightshade first darkens both the blade and the lightening effect, and the violet adds color to the lightening to make it stand out.  Then it's simply picking out some spots with white and you're finished.

About the only thing missing from this guy is his basing and doing the script on the the scroll above his head and on the shield.  And while it seems unlikely that I'll be getting both my apothecary and sergeant finished tonight.  At least the majority of the squad will look good running with my Master of Sanctity and Emperor's Champion.