Hello again good friends of the Caesura!
I am glad to report that I am feeling much better than last week, recovered from most of my COVID symptoms. Continuing from last week's post, I'm ready to tell you more about the lists that JP and I took for my first game of Warhammer 40k in over a decade and a half.
I have tried to write this post for those who know very little about playing Warhammer 40k (which was me when I started preparing for this game).
So, I knew that I wanted to keep things straightforward for my first game and that we were playing to 500 points. For those non-warhammerites, this is basically the smallest game you can play - less moving parts to keep track of.
Here is my list again, but this time I will discuss what it all means, and my thought process behind each choice:
+ Stratagems [-1CP] +
Stratagem: Revered Repositories [-1CP]
This just means that before the game I used one of my finite resources ("Command Points") to buy a very fancy weapon ("The Sword of Judgement") for one of my unit sergeants.
+ HQ [5 PL, 100pts] +
Primaris Captain [5 PL, 100pts]: Breath of the Throne, Frag & Krak grenades, Master of Arms, Warlord
- Auto-flamer and Master-crafted power sword [10pts]: Auto-flamer [5pts], Master-crafted power sword [5pts]
This HQ (Head Quarters) is the leader of my army and the only painted miniature that I played with at the time: Marshal Grymm!
I paid some extra points (out of the 500 that I started with to enlist each of my units) to soup up his gun to be a super cool machine gun-flame thrower called the "Breath of the Throne".
Obviously I would have loved to have had all of my dudes painted for this game, but it was nice to at least have the leader of my army painted.
+ Troops [5 PL, -1CP, 100pts] +
Assault Intercessor Squad [5 PL, -1CP, 100pts]
- 4x Assault Intercessor [76pts]: 4x Astartes Chainsword, 4x Frag & Krak grenades, 4x Heavy Bolt Pistol
I initially didn't really understand why Assault Intercessors were such a popular choice in Space Marine armies (aside from the fact that they are among the coolest miniatures - 8-foot tall super humans in >1 ton power armour barrelling towards the foe with an automatic pistol blasting explosive rounds and chainsaw revving) but learned that they are often taken not because they are the very best units, but because - points wise - they are rather cheap.
When you consider that, out of the 500 points that I could allocate to creating my small army, 100 of those were used for Marshal Grymm and another 100 were used to bring all FIVE of these Assault Intercessors, you can start to see that they are relatively cheap.
And why would you want a cheap unit, rather than just spending all of your points on the strongest, toughest and most powerful stuff you could buy? Because the game isn't just about killing your opponent. It's about accomplishing missions - things like capturing objectives - for which you need lots of bodies to get all around the board.
- Assault Intercessor Sgt [-1CP, 24pts]: Frag & Krak grenades, Heavy Bolt Pistol, Power sword [5pts], Stratagem: Champion of the Feast [-1CP], Sword of Judgement
Leading this unit was the souped up sergeant that I mentioned above. I paid extra points to make him a proper hero. Not only did I buy him that "Sword of Judgement", but I also upgraded him to be a minor hero of the Black Templars: the Champion of the Feast. This would augment his battle prowess, turning this cheap little unit into something to fear.
+ Elites [15 PL, 300pts] +
Bladeguard Veteran Squad [5 PL, 105pts]
- 2x Bladeguard Veteran [70pts]: 2x Frag & Krak grenades, 2x Heavy Bolt Pistol, 2x Master-crafted power sword, 2x Storm Shield
Now came the beefy dudes. The elites of my army, which combined took up 300 of my 500 points (over half of my army in 4 models!) These are the "quality over quantity" guys and the reason that I padded my army out with the cheap Assault Intercessors above.
Anyway, these Bladeguard Veterans are unbelievably cool. Where the Assault Intercessors are all sleek and dynamic shock troops, these are the opposite - stoic, immovable shield walls of elite veteran superhuman soldiers garbed and armed with relics of their chapter.
In game terms they are the anvil upon which to smite your foe.
- Bladeguard Veteran Sergeant [35pts]: Frag & Krak grenades, Heavy Bolt Pistol, Master-crafted power sword, Storm Shield
They are lead by a sergeant who I just took "as is", lacking the points to soup him up.
For 105 points I could take 3 of these elite Bladeguard Veterans (where as the 5 Assault Intercessors (with their mighty sergeant) only cost 100 points of my army resources.
Redemptor Dreadnought [10 PL, 195pts]: 2x Storm Bolters, Icarus Rocket Pod [5pts], Macro Plasma Incinerator, Onslaught Gatling Cannon [5pts], Redemptor Fist
Last and best came the model that I actually picked first. The model around which I crafted the whole rest of the list. A Dreadnought!
In the lore of Warhammer 40k, when a particularly worthy Space Marine is too injured to continue to serve The Emperor in battle, he may be interred within the life-support sarcophagus of a Dreadnought so that he may fight on.
I've always loved Dreadnoughts and was so excited to use the one that came with my Black Templars army box.
This was not, perhaps, the most tactically sound idea, because the Redemptor Dreadnought cost almost 200 points by itself! That's almost half of my army in one model. It was very much an "all your eggs in one basket" situation. But the prospect of commanding a big stompy robot seemed like too much fun to pass up over silly things like "tactics."
++ Total: [25 PL, 1CP, 500pts] ++
And that was my whole army.
When I originally wrote my list, I had another unit of Assault Intercessors rather than the Bladeguard Veterans. I thought it would be less mentally taxing to only have three different unit types for my first game. But this logic went out the window when I looked at the models that I had assembled from which I could draw on for my army. When I saw that I had enough points to instead include the Bladeguard Vets, I said "aw man, these guys are too cool not to take". So the decision was made.
When I decided on my list, I did not yet know which mission we'd be playing (would we be killing all the baddies? Capturing objectives? Invading enemy territory?) so I wanted to have a relatively well-rounded army to be able to adapt to different play styles. With this in mind, I felt that Marshal Grymm could do a bit of shooting (with his special Breath of the Throne gun) and a bit of fighting and he could inspire any guys who were near to him to fight a bit better. The Assault Intercessors could do a little shooting, more fighting and were good for running up the board to capture objectives and the like. The Bladeguard Vets are supposed to be tough as nails, so I envisioned moving them up, sitting them on an objective and not moving. Finally my Redemptor Dreadnaught can put out a truly magnificent amount of firepower to make up for the relative lack of shooting in the rest of my army.
JP sent me his army list before the game, but unfortunately I didn't really have time to research what all his guys could do (and therefore which ones to prioritize for destruction) - I barely had time to learn what all my guys could do, and learn the rules of the game (while simultaneously doing up the guest room of our house).
I won't be able to give any commentary as to JP's specific choices, but I have included his list below for those who are interested.
++ Patrol Detachment 0CP (Necrons) [26 PL, 500pts] ++
Dynasty Choice: Dynasty: Novokh
+ HQ [10 PL, 170pts] +
Overlord [6 PL, 100pts]: Relic (Novokh): Blood Scythe, Warlord, Warlord Trait (Novokh): Blood-Fuelled Fury, Warscythe [5pts]
Plasmancer [4 PL, 70pts]: Plasmic Lance
+ Troops [6 PL, 130pts] +
Necron Warriors [6 PL, 130pts]
- 10x Necron Warrior (Gauss Flayer) [130pts]: 10x Gauss Flayer
+ Elites [10 PL, 200pts] +
Flayed Ones [2 PL, 50pts]
- 5x Flayed One [50pts]: 5x Flayer Claws
Skorpekh Destroyers [8 PL, 150pts]
- Skorpekh Destroyer (Reap-Blade) [30pts]: Hyperphase Reap-Blade
- 4x Skorpekh Destroyer (Thresher) [120pts]: 4x Hyperphase Threshers
++ Total: [26 PL, 500pts] ++
Just to make some pedestrian observations on JP's list: rather than having one "big bad" in his list (like my Redemptor Dreadnought), he spread his points out more. His most expensive single unit was his 5 Skorpekh Destroyers at 150 points. Because of this, he had a lot more bodies on the board (including a single unit of 10 guys (twice the size of my largest unit), a total of 22 models, compared to my 10.
So would beginners luck prevail? Would my small, elite force vanquish the alien scum? Find out next week when I finally tell you about the actual game!
See you then, on The Art of Caesura!
Watching: Spiderhead (2022) - Kosinski
Reading: Warhammer Skirmish Preview on July 10th.
Next Week:
The mighty Black Templars vs. the Necron filth.
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