Battlefield and Deployment





We're playing Lost Contact, which means that the Objectives on the ground are also your source for future missions. So control of the ground is going to be vital to ensure you get a good flow of VPs. I stick one on the high cliff in the middle, feeling confident that I have more flyers to claim it with and totally forgetting about the damn disc riders in the other force until right now, five days later when I'm writing about it. Gah.





Kraken won the roll-off and chose Dawn of War deployment. With so many transports for the Black Legion to stuff troops into, I was sure I'd finish second (and I did, but only by one drop), so I deployed conservatively.





One unit of Rubrics went on my extreme right flank to lock down an objective (with their armour save, All Is Dust rule and cover save, they'd be all-but impervious to small-arms fire); the other unit of Rubrics took the objective on the left flank.





The Scarab Occult went into the teleportarium, and my Tzaangors and Spawn clustered around the Mutalith, where its buffing abilities could benefit them. All the characters hung around the back - thanks to the new FAQ, I'd have at least one turn before I'd have to worry about jump-pack Murder Swords paying me a visit.





I'd picked the side with fewer objectives, as my plan was to zerg-rush the melee units forward, while holding back with the two Rubric squads and seeing what Fate had in store for me...





Black Legion Turn 1

Thousand Sons Turn 1





Objectives Draw - Wrath of Magnus





I've weathered the opening moves, and my first tactical card is to kill something in the Psychic Phase. Should be easy enough for me, but not really achievable in this turn, even with the amount of Smite at my disposal.





The Black Legion forward elements are moving towards the heart of my line, which suits me fine. The Heldrake, on the other hand, is a problem. With a free reign in my backline, that thing will be worse for my characters than any Murder Sword.





I move the Spawn, Mutalith and Tzanngor forward, backed up by the characters. The right-flank Rubrics fall back out of combat and - either in a moment of tactical nous or sheer panic - I drop the Terminators in my own deployment zone, within range of the Heldrake.









The Psychic Phase is a hoot. I cast Prescience and Weaver of Fates on the Scarab Terminators, Glamour of Tzeentch on the Tzaangor, Tzeentch’s Firestorm on the Heldrake (then fail to roll a signle wound), Smite on the Helbrute, and Diabolic Strength on the Mutalith. The latter causes me to Perils and take two wounds off my Sorcerer, but luckily I can then cast Temporal Manipulation and restore them straight away. Team work makes the Tzeentch work!





But all of this is misdirection, trying to temp Kraken into wasting his single Deny the Witch ability (he wasn't fooled). What I really wanted to do was cast Warptime on the Tzaangor - so much so that I use the Cabalistic Focus stratagem to boost the casting. I get the spell off with a 9, only for Kraken to deny it anyway! Oh Tzeentch, you give and then you take away.





The Shooting Phase kicks off with my Mutalith's special abilities. I can either select one power (and having failed Warptime, the one that lets me re-roll charges would be very handy) or I can have two random powers. I'm inclined to leave it to fate, and so I get one power that inflicts two mortal wounds on the Helbrute and another that increases the AP on the Tzaangor. Not too shabby.





The Terminators open up on the Heldrake, abetted by Veterans of the Long War. And, as it often the way when they need 2s to hit and are out of range of a Lord, they roll a lot of 1s. Still, they can't be totally hopeless and take the beast down to three wounds. There's not much else to shoot, as I really didn't bring a lot of guns in this army.









In my Assault Phase, I declare a lot of optimistic long-bomb charges and it goes remarkably well. Unless, you count Overwatch, in which case it was a minor disaster.





The Spawn charge the Rhino, and get hit with a melta that microwaves one of their number. The Tzaangor make a very long charge into the same Rhino, although not many of them get into combat (which actually helps me keep in range of the Tzaangor Shaman and his buffing). The Mutalith fails a charge against the Helbrute, but at least doesn't get shot.





Then the Scarab Terminators run face-first into the Heldrake's baleflamer. Three of them are wounded, I fail all my boosted-invulnerable saves (even using a Command Point re-roll) and, with double damage, I lose three-fifths of the squad before I've even made the charge.





That was a boon! And a lucky one too, the Heldrake is already in bits and isn't going to do much in melee.





As cold-comfort, the surviving Scarabs do make it in against this monster, and in an emotional moment, I use Veterans of the Long War on them once again, hoping that it might just be enough to take down those last three wounds and salvage this. As it transpires, they all miss their attacks and the combat is a whiff.





Black Legion Turn 2

Objectives Drawn - Long War, Defend Objective 3, Secure Objective 4













The Shaman survives! In your face, Sinfang the Murder Sword! My goat-high-priest then smacks back and deals three wounds to his assailant. Hah!





But before that happens, I capitalise on this swing in beastmen fortunes by spending two Command Points to interrupt combat with my Tzaangor, and then use my past Command Point to go all-in and give them Veterans of the Long War. Despite being less than half-strength, the boys do me proud and kill five Black Legionnaires before they can react.





Thousand Sons Turn 2

Objectives Draw - Wrath of Magnus, Secure Objective 1







Things are not going well. I've lost most of my army, spent all my Command Points, and am serious lagging behind in victory points (Objective 1, by the way, is the Numinous Occulum that the Black Legion are camped on, so good luck with that).

Still, there's a scrum in the centre that I ought to punch through. If I manage that, my Sorcerers can still wreak havoc. There's also a Jump Pack Lord that's about to get the crap smited out of him.



The remaining Chaos Spawn chases after the retreating Rhino. The last Tzaangor sits on the objective, as if he's not going to get immediately shot off it. The Rubrics move within rapid-fire range of the Chaos Space Marines. All the characters line up to charge into the Mutalith's fight.

The Psychic Phase begins briskly: the Shaman kills the Chaos Lord with Smite, freeing him up to join in the fun. Temporal Manipulation restores some wounds to the Mutalith (who heals one per turn anyway, so has raised up a bracket), another Smite takes off wounds from the Heldrake (who is also healing, damn him) and another Smite brings the Dark Apostle down to his last wound. And, since this is no time to hold back, my Disc Sorcerer gets Diabolic Strength.

The Shooting Phase starts with me picking the Mutalith's power (I can't trust fate right now) and I go with the one that deals a mortal wound to every enemy in range - that would kill the Apostle and soften up the Helbrute. Sadly, being wounded, he just fails the roll to cast the power (why didn't I keep a Command Point for this?).

The only other shooting is my Rubrics wiping out the last of the Chaos Space Marine squad, so at least that's two less meltas to worry about.

In the Assault Phase, the Spawn crashes into the Rhino and all my characters make their do-or-die charge into the central fight.





The Exalted Sorcerer leads off proceedings with his boosted strength and attacks. He still manages to whiff somewhat and leaves the Helbrute with one wound left. That should be something that the Tzaangor Shaman should be able to manage, but he's lost his Chaos Lord-killing knack and fails all his attacks.





Down to the Mutalith then, who I was hoping to have free to attack the characters by this point. I split his tentacle attack - putting enough in the Dark Apostle to remove his last wound, and the majority into the Helbrute. I land four wounds and the Helbrute save only three of them - he's going down! Then Kraken spends his last Command Point and passes the last save - he's staying up!









Both Black Legion Sorcerer and the Exalted Sorcerer on foot essentially contribute nothing to the melee. Then the Helbrute has the temerity to go Crazed! and has another round of attacks at my warlord. Luckily his invulnerable save spares his blushes, but that combat could have gone a lot better.





JUST DIE ALREADY!

Black Legion Turn 3





I don't like the way this is shaping up. Extreme luck has saved me in the middle of the field there, with the Helbrute weathering a nearly impossible storm, but there's no way he's lasting much longer. Once he's down, those characters are going to murder the rest of my army in seconds flat, as I really don't have anything left strong enough to deal with them.





Luckily, I've still got some easy missions to claim, and Defending Objective 6 right underneath all my Cultists is going to be the first of them. They get right on that by staying totally still and hoping nobody notices them. The nearby Rhino continues running from the Spawn, I can't really think that staying put will help anything out.





The other rhino (more fake map news here) actually flees the combat with the remaining Terminator and goes and parks by the Chaos Marines over in the Occulus. They're starting to look a bit left out, and I feel certain I'm going to need them back in action before long. Finally, the Heldrake flies up to snatch Objective 4, and then everyone else is desperately trying to finish off the Mutalith.









Which mightn't be impossible, as it does only have a few wounds left at this point. The psychic phase gets me nowhere nearer this, of course, as all the Tzeentchian manipulators sit heavily on my every attempt to anything.





Shooting? The Heldrake at least burns down the final Terminator, and a lucky longshot from the Chaos Marines' Autocannon blows up the last Spawn. Having seen what the Rubrics did to their Chaos Marine buddies midfield, the Cultists return the favour by wiping the last, sad Tzaangor out, so that's a decent amount of closure for one phase.





And then it's combat time. We're slugging it out in turns, nobody has the charge advantage here. I get to go first, and I get greedy. I Split the Helbrute's attacks like a chump, thinking I only need to get a single hit on the Mutalith to finish it, and a couple of good hits on the Warlord will do for him too. Obviously, I kill nobody.





The Sorcerer Warlord overreacts to this, and pastes the Helbrute in short order.





Pastes him a little too hard, as it turns out - he explodes! D3 mortal wounds on everyone nearby!





That settles the rest of the combat in short order. The Mutalith dies, as does my Dark Apostle and the already wounded Tzaangor Shaman. Thankfully, the Mutalith doesn't explode as well, or we'd probably all be dead, but all the remaining sorcerers are looking a little tattered round the edges.





The morale phase is short - there's nobody left alive who'd need to take one.





Objectives Claimed - Secure Objective 4 (1)





Thousand Sons Turn 3

Objectives drawn - Hold The Line





Map errata: the top-left Rhino has returned to collect the Chaos Marine squad





The exploding Helbrute has pretty much sunk me, so now we're playing for pride. I draw Hold The Line, which means I need to get my three remaining units back into my deployment zone. Easy enough for the Rubrics, as they never left.





The Disc Sorcerer can skim back easily, but I have to deploy my Dark Matter Crystal to bring the Sorcerer back into the fold (I couldn't risk a failed Warptime attempt on him. I am behind on points - and not likely to score many more - so I need to keep drawing fresh cards each turn).









The Psychic Phase is mostly healing up my wounded Sorcerer with Temporal Manipulation and whittling down that Heldrake with Smite. The Black Legion Sorcerer also gets Smited off the table. I would say that he's been schooled by superior magicks, but if he did nothing more than deny me that critical first-turn Warptime, then he's earned his corn.





Black Legion Turn 4





Thousand Sons Turn 4

Objectives drawn - none









Did I say I was playing for pride? I'm now just playing to kill stuff. I can't even draw any more tactical objective cards, so I let rip with whatever Smite and Boltguns I have available.



The Cultists take the brunt of my wrath, bringing them down to two models. And then I charge in with my Warlord to finish them off.



There was no overwhelming tactical reason for picking on them ... but then, we're all dying over here, why should they get away with it?

Black Legion Turn 5

Objectives Drawn - None





Thousand Sons Turn 5

Objectives Drawn - None





Both Turn 6

Result: Black Legion Victory (12 VPs to 4)





Locker Room of Terror

Crumbs, I don't usually get tabled this badly when I'm not facing Tyranids. Clearly, I have some lessons to learn before I can integrate my new units into the army. Although, to be honest, they performed quite well - it was the old guard that stuffed up (and their general, of course).





Also: I'm soooo glad that I bust a gut to get the Helbrute ready to fight against me. What happened to New Model Syndrome?





It's a different story on the other side of the battlefield - the Tzaanogor pile in around the Rhino, rolling a bucketload of dice, hitting on 2s because of the Shaman, re-rolling 1s because of the Exalted Sorcerer, with -2AP because of the Mutalith. What they're really lacking is the ability to punch through that toughness (if only I'd been more judicious about spendingeh?). In the end, they scratch off a couple of wounds from the vehicle. The Spawn fare little better - I spend a Stratagem to improve their viability, but anti-armour really isn't their forte.So what began as a promising turn has become a bit of a shambles. Still, there's plenty left on the table!In the Morale Phase, the Tzaangor pay the price for the heavy losses taken this turn - and me rolling a 6 didn't help either. Five more beastmen melt away, leaving just one left - optimistically sitting on the objective.This would have made no difference, but I should try and school myself: the Chaos Spawn would have dropped the Leadership of the nearby marines.I score Wrath of Magus with Slay the Warlord as a bonus. I discard Secure Objective 1 in the hope of anything more achievable.In the Shooting Phase, my paltry collection of Inferno Boltguns takes some pot-shots at the Heldrake and finally brings the monster down!That's the last of my successes. I claim Hold The Line, but Kraken also gets Defend Objective 3 for two points. It's all uphill from here.One Exalted Sorcerer and one Aspiring Sorcerer left. Maybe the game will end early and spare my blushes.I let off a few, then head for whatever line-of-sight blocking cover I can reach on foot.The Aspiring Sorcerer YOLO's his way into the Rhino, and falls to a hail of Overwatch. Of course he does. And that's a tabling even before we count up the hockey score of victory points against me.I wish I had that excuse. I just made a couple of early unforced errors that cost me dearly. Picking the wrong side might have been the first one, but trying to alpha-strike my Scarab Occult has never worked out for me and I really ought to learn to use them properly.Regarding the Heldrake, when I got it down to three wounds, I think I got tunnel-vision in trying to take it down, even when it came to charging Baleflamer Overwatch. An absence of long-range firepower was a weakness in my list - a Defiler's guns or a DakkaBrute could have really helped me out there.As for the Tzaangor, yes they would have been a lot more effective against the Helbrute, but in my defence, I was trying to encircle the entire vehicle (which I would have done with another inch on the charge), preventing its escape, stopping me getting shot in the next turn, and keeping the troops inside buttoned-up. It didn't really work, but as I had no other answer for vehicles, I was willing to try it.I was happy with the impact the Tzaangor pack had on the battle - especially when buffed by the Shaman and Exalted Sorcerer. The Mutalith was a fun pick too. He can take hit, draws a lot of attention and, though I only got to use his powers twice, I can see there is a lot of potential. Next time, I think I'll hold him back from the front line a little, or at least make sure he's properly supported.I'm still liking the formation of two 5-man Rubric squads. They do soak a lot of small-arms fire to get rid off, and the extra Sorcerer more than compensates for the lack of Soulreaper Cannon.Now I've got my hand in (and paid the battalion tax) with the squaddies, I have a few small additions that might flavour the army's playstyle. One thing for certain, they're not getting a Heldrake!(take note GW - we are happy to receive any advance copy and share them with all four of our readers)