This battle report covers a fight designed to test the Adeptus Mechanicus and Imperial Knights before they become released to the public. This is a stress test, and House Vulker was allowed to field a non legal army in order to test knight variants and confirm or deny the need to restrict Knights to traditional Slots. Proxies were used for many of the Adeptus Mechanicus to get confirmation tests on the units.
Mars Forgeworld forces deployed on Valour VII in a war game against the Emperor’s finest. With the highly anticipated arrival of Imperial Knights making their first arrival in Valour System, a war game was planned to ensure their suits were fully operational. Who better to administer the battle simulation and support than the Adeptus Mechanicus that brought them here? Under the cover of shadow from the slowly climbing titanic transport, the battle started in darkness!
They deployed in an attrition style conflict. The idea was to simulate Knights making a breakthrough for the hotly contested fronts of Valour IX. The Knight Commander came loaded with 2 Avenger Bolt Cannons, a Ironstorm Missile Pod, and a Meltagun. He took the center of the line to act as the bastion. His support unit consisted of a unit of Peltasts to act as protectors lead by a Dominus to provide immediate repairs should the war games get to carried away. A unit of Kastelan Robot Muniples was deployed for each one as well to act as a skirmish screen or emergency response unit.
A unit of Vanguards held another Deployment Zone Objective.
The Knight Valiant chassis brought a Volcano Lance, Plasma Decimator, 2 Siege Turrets, a rack of Shield Breaker Missiles, and the classic racks of Meltaguns. It was accompanied by a unit of Hoplites to protect it and another Dominus for safety reasons.
The Custodes were setting up a light attack screen when hundreds of Grots came flooding in out of nowhere! The Custodes murdered a bunch of them in holy slaughter, but the Grots just seemed enamored by the golden armour of the Emperor’s bodyguards, so they made the call to just proceed with the wargame and annihilate any that remained afterwards.
A Captain and a Dawneagle Bike deployed on the east flank with intent to hunt and destroy together. A large rabble of Grots excitedly took up arms beside them! Two Custode Guards held rear line Objectives.
In the rear lines, Da Red Gobbo (who had taken the rebellion into full swing when they stole the Battle Wagons from a bunch of drunk Orks and then stowed away in a local freighter. Da Red Gobbo rallied the troops from the rear, quite bravely, and sent them forwards!
A Telemon took the center line with the pair of Battle Wagons. With the Telemon’s mighty antiarmour cannons and the crushing Deff Rollas of the Battle Wagons, they were sure to over whelm and force the rotating Ion Shield frequencies to be ineffective! Each Battle Wagon was packed with 40 Grots (thanks to Packed like Squigs) for a tide of wildly enthusiastic, but ineffective, tiny green skins.
The west flank saw another mob of Grots and a Dawneagle Bike ready to race ahead and eliminate threats.
Sicarian Infiltrators stealthed into the the far reaches of the enemy Deployment Zone, threatening Da Red Gobbo!
Right before the battle started, the Vanguards Scouted ahead! Racing up to the first fortification and Objective #2.
Under the cover of darkness, the Knight Castellan moved up for a better set of shots. The Kastelan Robots moved up to form a protective screen, with Heavy Flamers and powerful Melee weapons being a high deterrent. The Vanguard moved up the building for cleaner shots as well.
The opening barrage took a heavy toll on Grot life. Ultimately, only a small percentage of army strength of destroyed, but it was glorious! Thanks to their Night Vision capabilities, the Knights were able to exact a heavy toll. The Knight Castellan fired its Plasma Decimator into the crowd of Grots in the open, killing many of them. A lucky scatter also injured the Dawnbike next to them! Its Siege Breaker Cannons pounded the ones in the building on the far left, and its Volcano Lance damaged both the Telemon and a Custode Guard hiding in the building next to it.
The Vanguard was able to inflict some further damage on the Dawneagle Bike with their radioactive carbines! The snipers and the Rangers completely whiffed their rolls, as did the Infiltrators, who were engaging the only T2 models in the game with one of the few S2 high volume shot pistols they carried. Calibrating of the Infiltrators will be necessary at the end of the simulation. They were unable to charge since they won Initiative.
The Knight Commander strafed the Telemon with both of its Avenger Bolt Cannons. Light damage was inflicted. It did not have any ideal shots, so it took the ones that it could get.
The unholy alliance of the lowest form of life in the galaxy and the most elite force of Imperials responded with heavy damage! The Vanguard were wiped out by a combination of Stormbolter fire, Grot Blastaz, Big Shootaz, and a very angry round of Custode Captain stabbing them in the face. Before they went down, the unit Champion was able to score a wound on the Captain with his Power Sword, so a small victory there. Both Battle Wagons failed their Poor Maintenance Test! For the first time ever, both rolled a 1 and chose to remain stationary so they could attack with their ranged weapons! Cannons blazed into the Robot unit, but only dealt light damage.
The Telemon came around and fired its devastating rounds at the Castellan, but completely forgot how to use its golden age targeting systems, missing or failing 3 of its 4 shots!
Da Red Gobbo and his possie moved and fired point blank into the Infiltrators, damaging one. The Dawneagle Bike peeled off from the Captain to help destroy the Infiltrators. The raking fire from the Hurricane Bolter was only able to slay one of them! Both units Charged in to finish them! The Grots were unable to harm them, and the Custode rider botched his attacks, only slaying one more. The Infiltrators in turn botched their Overwatch fire despite the benefit of Pistols. Gambling, they used their Power Swords to cut down the Grots instead of struggling with the Custode. The Custode lost combat and began to get Overwhelmed, but only suffered one damage in the struggle. The Grots ran of the field in fear! Immediately, the Grots had an emergency election in the midst of battle and a Grot in a Battle Wagon was nominated as the new Red Gobbo!
At this point I got to excited by the sheer volume of dying Grots and did not take pictures for a bit.
The Knight Castellan smashed the building containing the Bike Captain, forcing it to Force Disembark and Go to Ground. Point blank, it fire Meltaguns into him with the full fury of the Rangers and the Hoplites pouring fire into him. He was heavily injured, but survived! The Volcano Lance botched its shot and missed altogether! The Decimator and smaller cannons annihilated more Grots as well. Both single use Missiles were expended into one of the Battle Wagons, doing heavy damage! It suffered a Crew Stun and an Immobilize, heavily reducing its speed! Then, it Charged the Captain, trying to crush him to death with its weight but failed! The intervention of the Kastelan Robots finished him off, but not before he inflicted moderate damage to one of them.
A unit of 40 Grots was spawned by the Da Red Gobbo! They were able to gun down several more Infiltrators, but a combination of Knight Castellan fire and a much better set of rolls for the Infiltrators saw them wiped out with a finishing Charge!
The Dawneagle on the flank moved up, firing his Hurricane Bolter into the Peltasts. One was injured! The Kastelans moved to intercept, firing Flamers with no effect. They failed the Charge! Leaving the Knight Commander and his bodyguard unit wide open!
The Telemon saw its opening and fired at the Knight Commander! The Commander had to weigh the risk of the Battle Wagon Charge and the Telemon’s lethal fire! Grimacing, he cycled his shields for close proximity, taking 3 Penetrations! Thankfully, the secondary effect was non existent. Despite the heavy damage, the Battle Wagon was so close to the Knight Commander it joined in a Charge with the other one! They smashed into it like twin freight trains! If it had not been for the exceptional roll (4 out of 5 successes!) of the Ion Shield, it would have been nearly destroyed! Its lash back was only able to smash another gun.
The Dawneagle bike soared over the Robots and crashed into the Peltasts! The incoming Overwatch fire was particularly accurate and nearly killed him! As he skidded along the landing pad, the Champion slashed him with his Power Sword, taking him out of the fight with a lucky blow!
The Knight Commander took a step back! Firing its Meltagun into the Battle Wagons with his Avenger Cannons. Both Robot units flamed Grots into oblivion and then crashed into the Battle Wagons, destroying them both! Da Red Gobbo had to Force Disembark!
The Telemon was nearly destroyed by the point blank onslaught of the Knight Castellan!
Da Red Gobbo was annihilated by Flamers, but was elected again in his newly spawned unit!
At this point we called the game. Typically in A4R you can still win the Objective Game, even if the battle is going south for you. In this case, the unholy alliance was rolling terrible objectives and struggling to dominate the field. Overall this solidifies the needs for the Valiant Chassis to be restricted to Heavy Support Slots like we currently have setup. A normal 1500 point list of Knights would be a Knight Commander and 2 Troop Slots, most likely some kind of baby knights because of points or a Troop Slot knight (like 4 in one) and 1 baby knight.
Overall Admech did well and will be proceeding to Titan stress tests! The only one I am concerned about is the Warhound Titan for its point cost, speed, and ability to remove Objective Scoring units rapidly. Naturally we will try to break the game and adjust as needed.
Knights are doing much better than previously! Their rebuild has done them wonders. I feel like they are in a good spot. Biggest issue is going to be testing their specialty knights because of how expensive it is to field the minimum amount for an army.
Alternate 40k Rules 