"Gone Fishing" - Black Templars vs. T'au

In the Nimbosa Crusade, 

the Black Templars and Imperial Fists 

fought alongside other Space Marines Chapters 

to reclaim the world of Nimbosa from the T'au 

after the third sphere expansion.

The Tau Fire Warriors stationed aboard Orbital Primus 

turned the corridors of the space station 

into killing grounds with a warren of deadly ambushes, 

but the Black Templar force countered this 

by splitting up into small squads and attacked 

the defenders from multiple directions, 

using grenades and chainswords to smash their way through

- Lexicanum

Hey gang, welcome back to The Art of Caesura!

A few weeks ago I had my first game of Warhammer 40k in 6 months! Yes two data slates (points updates) had occurred since the last time I'd played, so my previous list, which had enjoyed a good bit of success, was no longer legal and it was back to the drawing board. I actually quite like list-writing, so this was a fun opportunity rather than a burden. 

Today we'll look at my new list and some of the thought process that went into it and then we'll look at highlights from the game that Rob and I played. 

It turned out that my stint at the drawing board was a very brief one, by replacing High Marshal Helbrecht with The Emperor's Champion, I was suddenly nearly there. I also had to downgrade my Heavy Intercessors, to normal Intercessors. My thought processes behind the changes were: I could no longer afford both Helbrecht and Grimaldus at 1000 points and I felt that the Emp Champ could still do a pretty good job of leading the Sword Bros - his melee capabilities are not too much worse than Helbrecht, but he doesn't dole out any buffs to the unit (he's also 75 points as opposed to 125). 

Regarding the Heavy Intercessors - I recognize they're not very popular in the meta, but I actually really like them. For larger games, I know that it would be a no brainer to replace them with Infiltrators to block out your deployment zone from deep strikers and the like, but I don't find this to be as much of an issue at my preferred game size (around 1000 points). I find that for the same points, Heavy Ints can sit in my backfield, shoot into the midfield and, in their gravis armour, they are tough as nails and are a real pain for most deep strikers to deal with. Anyway, for their points, they were the unit that I was willing to part with so I replaced them with regular Intercessors - considering that a large portion of my army was already melee focused (Primaris Crusader Squad, Sword Brethren, Emp Champ, Assault Intercessors, Bladeguard Vets) I wanted a little more shooting, and I like their Objective Secured ability to make objectives sticky. 

Anyway, I actually really like when the points change - I enjoy list building, so it's fun to be given a nudge to do it.

For those interested, here's my updated list:

1000 points (1000 points)

Space Marines

Black Templars

Incursion (1000 points)

Righteous Crusaders

CHARACTERS

Chaplain Grimaldus (120 points)

  • 1x Chaplain Grimaldus

    • Warlord

    • 1x Artificer crozius

      1x Plasma pistol

  • 3x Cenobyte Servitor

    • 3x Close combat weapon

The Emperor’s Champion (75 points)

  • 1x Black Sword

    1x Bolt Pistol

BATTLELINE

Assault Intercessor Squad (75 points)

  • 1x Assault Intercessor Sergeant

    • 1x Plasma pistol

      1x Power weapon

  • 4x Assault Intercessor

    • 4x Astartes chainsword

      4x Heavy bolt pistol

Intercessor Squad (80 points)

  • 1x Intercessor Sergeant

    • 1x Bolt pistol

      1x Plasma pistol

      1x Thunder hammer

  • 4x Intercessor

    • 1x Astartes grenade launcher

      4x Bolt pistol

      4x Bolt rifle

      4x Close combat weapon

Primaris Crusader Squad (140 points)

  • 1x Primaris Sword Brother

    • 1x Power weapon

      1x Pyre pistol

  • 5x Primaris Initiate

    • 3x Astartes chainsword

      5x Bolt pistol

      5x Close combat weapon

      3x Heavy bolt pistol

      2x Heavy bolt pistol

      2x Power fist

  • 4x Primaris Neophyte

    • 4x Astartes chainsword

      4x Bolt pistol

DEDICATED TRANSPORTS

Black Templars Impulsor (90 points)

  • 1x Armoured hull

    1x Bellicatus missile array

    1x Multi-melta

    2x Storm bolter

OTHER DATASHEETS

Bladeguard Veteran Squad (90 points)

  • 1x Bladeguard Veteran Sergeant

    • 1x Master-crafted power weapon

      1x Neo-volkite pistol

  • 2x Bladeguard Veteran

    • 2x Heavy bolt pistol

      2x Master-crafted power weapon

Eliminator Squad (85 points)

  • 1x Eliminator Sergeant

    • 1x Bolt pistol

      1x Close combat weapon

      1x Las fusil

  • 2x Eliminator

    • 2x Bolt pistol

      2x Close combat weapon

      2x Las fusil

Eradicator Squad (95 points)

  • 1x Eradicator Sergeant

    • 1x Bolt pistol

      1x Close combat weapon

      1x Melta rifle

  • 2x Eradicator

    • 2x Bolt pistol

      2x Close combat weapon

      1x Melta rifle

      1x Multi-melta

Primaris Sword Brethren (150 points)

  • 1x Sword Brother Castellan

    • 1x Combi-weapon

      1x Master-crafted power weapon

  • 4x Primaris Sword Brother

    • 1x Plasma pistol

      2x Power weapon

      2x Pyre pistol

      1x Thunder hammer

      1x Twin lightning claws

Let's move on to the game! Rather than giving a play-by-play, this time I'm going to focus on the highlights - the first of which being my opponent, Rob, the owner of our Friendly Local Gaming Store, The Guild Hall. Rob is a great guy, and an excellent opponent. He is helpful, friendly and instructive, and, like me, was more interested in having fun than in winning at all costs. We each made choices at times during the game that were tactically questionable, but too fun to turn down. 

I didn't get a photo of deployment, but above you can see Rob's half of the board at the end of my first turn. With diagonal deployment, I was able to push up to one of the far objectives with my Impulsor filled with the Emp Champ and Sword Bros as well as the Blade Guard Vets. Below, you can see the rest of the table at this stage. 

I like to play very aggressively with my Templars (must be the old Warhammer Fantasy Orcs and Goblins player in me). I basically pushed everything up, generally heading for objectives. 

Above you can see the standoff between my Eliminators and Rob's Stealth Suits, and below you can see some of the tasty targets for my Eliminators' las fusils.

Below you can see one of those "tactically questionable" moments that I talked about, but I just loved the image of these Assault Intercessors charging headlong into the Ghostkeel with the Broadside supporting it. Yes, they got shot to ribbons, but I had aspirations that they might tie it in combat and take the objective. 

Meanwhile, over on the other end of the board, my Sword Bros and Emp Champ made mince meat of the transport holding the massive unit of T'au Breachers. 

And my Primaris Crusader Squad with Grimaldus and friends (Servitors) claimed their rightful place in the centre of the battlefield. 

Below you can see the result of that brave charge into the Ghostkeel - my Assault Intercessors are bravely running away behind the terrain. My Irradicators popped in (I would have preferred them to come in behind his ?Sky-array ?Sky Ray (shooty tank) in his deployment zone, but I kind of messed up the strategic reserves (thinking I could come in from any board edge from the second turn. Anyway the Eradicators totally whiffed their shooting and got immediately blasted off the board. A costly blunder. 

Speaking of strategic reserves (or Deep Strikers as the case may be) below you can see a shot of Rob's AWESOME looking Vespid, using models from "One Page Rules". We were using Leviathan mission cards with a "Scrambler" or something which meant that he had to deploy at a bit of a distance from objectives. This did, however mean that the objective that I had claimed (and stickied) with my regular Intercessors, was no longer safe. 

Above, you can see the sneaky T'au creeping out of the far side of their transport as my belligerent Sword Brethren continue to hammer it from the other side. 

The T'au shooting really lived up to its reputation, blowing my Primaris Crusader Squad to bits. 

The T'au, seeing their opportunity to claim the central objective, tried to rush the remnants of my Primaris Crusader Squad, Grimaldus tried to hold the door, but a few slippery aliens managed to sneak by. 

Above, the Sword Bros and Emp Champ finished off the transport, and the Broadside for good measure. But, just south of their position, was one of the duels of the match...A solitary Stealth Suit managed to tie up my Blade Guard Veteran Sergeant (AND CONTEST HIM FOR THE OBJECTIVE) for FOUR TURNS IN CLOSE COMBAT!!!! It was truly crazy. I think Grimaldus will be gaining a new servitor, and the Stealth Suit will be inducted into the Black Templars!

- Uhhh...sir, I can't find the objective on my screen...
- It's right there, you idiot!

After mopping up the vehicles, the remnants of the Sword Bros found themselves somewhat exposed...

The ongoing main event...

The game ended with a big brawl in the middle, with the Emp Champ, remaining Sword Brother, 2 Assault Intercessors and the regular Intercessor Sergeant all getting stuck in, ridding the central objective of the loathsome xenos. 

But the grand finale was that finally, FINALLY my Sword Brother managed to kill the Stealth Suit - surely the model of the match. 

As you can see, the game was great fun. Points-wise, Rob won by 5 points (which is basically as close as it gets, because you could only earn points in 5-point increments). So it was all a real blast!

Join me next week as we look at a short story that I'm writing, inspired by our game. It's all right here on The Art of Caesura!

Reading: The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store - James McBride

Next Week:

Story time...