This was a stress test of the Warhound Titan to ensure it was not over powered when taken in a minimum force with some of its more terrifying weapons against one of the most at risk Codex.
The Adeptus Mechanicus deployed their force! With so many resources tied up in deploying their mighty Warhound Titan, a minimal force was able to be fielded with it. A unit of 5 Rangers held Objective #4 out of sight and out of mind.
A second unit of 5 Rangers with a Tech Priest Dominus held Objective #5, also staying out of sight.
The Warhound Titan was deployed in a central open area where it could strike swiftly as needed!
In response, the Dark Angles forces deployed in a manner to force some hard decisions for the Warhound Princeps. Would it focus on the Objective capable units or the units that could threaten it?
Their warlord was a formidable Chief Chaplain Dreadnought! Loaded with a Dreadnought Missile Launcher and Dreadnought Close Combat Weapon with Meltagun, he was quite the force to be reckoned with! He focused on his Omen of Potency to make himself more formidable and a protective battle hymn to inspire defensive faith manifestations in those around him. Next to him deployed a Repulsor with a six man First Born Tactical Squad. Its goal would be to deploy two man fire teams on Objectives as needed to ensure they could weather the firepower of the Warhound.
On the left flank, a unit of Outriders planned to move up and start putting the pressure on the Rangers, further forcing the Warhound to make a tough decision! A unit of Infiltrators snuck in nearby to assist and grab whatever Objectives they could.
The Adeptus Mechanicus struck first! The Warhound moved forward with alarming speed and hosed the ruins with a massive triple flamer! Despite their Transhuman Physiology, three of them were burned to a crips and another injured! It fired its Twin Turbo Laser Destructors at the bikes, but its machine spirit was unbalanced and the shots went behind them as they raced to safety!
The bikes raced forwards before spraying the titan in futility.
The Warhound Titan was bold. Determined to get quick strikes on the Objective units, it turned its back on some potent fire power! Had the pilot been to cocky? The Chaplain moved up and fired Missiles and a long range Melta shot! The Melta was able to clip the chassis of the titan, but the missiles failed to break the Void Shield! The Repulsor moved to assist, firing Lascannon weaponry and mass small arms fire. Despite some good shooting, the Void Shield managed to protect it even after its main shield collapsed! A two man unit was deployed to the ruins to capture Objective #1. Lastly, a Meltabomb was chucked from the Infiltrator Sergeant and managed to knock the titan around a bit.
Unfortunate for the Warhound, the Chaplain Dreadnought was feeling particularly spicey with the weapons facing away from him. He Charged in, just barely making the distance! The surprise of his Shock Assault, Omen of Potency, and being a Chief Chaplain was impressive! Massive internal damage rocked the Warhound Titan, but due to some fluke of nature it suffered minimal secondary effects. The Titan had one leg heavily damaged, halving its speed!
The Titan attempted to get away from the angry little box of anger, and despite being slowed down was able to get some distance. It turned its full attention to the bikes, scorching them with sheaths of insanely hot fire and pummeled the earth with its Turbo Laser Destructors. The flames did immense damage, and one of the Destructors managed to get a good strike in despite the rebellious nature of the machine spirit. Only the Sergeant remained, emerging from the smoke and ash with a mighty roar of his block engine, barely alive but full of fury!
Despite the Difficult Terrain from the craters, the Chaplain Dreadnought was able to catch up to him! A volley of long Range Lascannon fire from the Repulsor did some minor damage, while the Dreadnought got two solid Krak Missile hits! One broke the shield and the other Disabled a Flamer! A Meltabomb from the Sergeant blew out the other leg, slowing him even further! The angry box of anger caught up to it, and began beating the Emperor’s wrath into its ankles! It toppled over, the the angry box of anger began smashing its main frame unit it detonated in a nuclear blast!
The Bike raced around the corner and the Sergeant dumped a payload of fire from his Handflamer! It burned two of the metal men to a crisp! He charged in, dodging Gauss fire by jinking his bike with supreme skill! He prepared to rain blows with his Power Sword, missed every attack, and then YEETed himself onto the Ranger’s champion’s Power Sword and died.
At this point we called the game at Dark Angels 5 to 2 VP. This was not intended to be a full game or even particularly fun one. We just needed to confirm that the Codex for the Adeptus Mechanicus could go live and that a Warhound Titan would not break a 1500 point tournament list.
Couple of ways this scenario could have played out. The Titan could have played keep away with its Movement 20″ and fired at the Dreadnought, killing him on Turn 2 (or three if things went bad). He would not have been able to make enough Objective unit kills by the end of the game and would have lost by Victory Points, even if he managed to wipe the board.
He could have focused on the Repulsor, but it was not directly a threat that could kill it by itself.
He could have stayed far away from the Dreadnought, hammering my right flank. But by the time it could have safely repositioned without crushing the terrain his forces were sheltering in I would have been pretty high up in Victory Points and already in melee with them.
The last options would be if it had Vulcan Megabolters or Plasma Blastguns. Both of these are pretty lethal and would have been great for keep away. But I could have just Gone to Ground inside cover and made it insanely difficult to get me out. Once again, by the time I was defeated I would have scored to many Victory Points compared to him.
Ultimately, it looks like we got the Warhound Titan safely point costed, so even in an extreme match up in minimal sized games where it can be fielded a well rounded army can play a defensive role to win, even if it can’t defeat the Warhound in combat.
Alternate 40k Rules 