My final opponent was a Thousand Sons player. Not Chaos Marines, but Thousand Sons. After my (admittedly minor and petty) gripes about my last opponent not playing entirely to theme, the Thousand Sons army was a joy to see. It made me feel so very bad though.
As most of you (I’m guessing) know, the Thousand Sons do not fare particularly well against vehicles. The only weapon above Strength 4 in one of their squads is going to be the Psyker, and the only power you can guarantee there is SD6+1. Doombolt is okay, but lacks the heavy punch of melta for the big vehicles. He was packing Ahriman, who can be a bit of a gun turret with the right powers and is a boon for the army, but the only other anti-tank things were a Defiler (set up to be more of a firebase than an assaulter) and a tricked out Daemon Prince. Mention should be made of both of those models though, as the Defiler he was using was a scratch-build that dated back to before the Defiler model was actually released and the Daemon Prince was a Llamassu, so everything really looked the part!
Unfortunately, as these things go (especially when you are playing to such an inflexible theme) the counter-lists can be all too common, and such was the case here. The Daemon Prince managed to take down a Soul Grinder, but that just left it open to counter-assault from the Bloodthirster, and you know how that fight goes down. After my plentiful ranged guns took down his Defiler, it was just a matter of plinking away at him with shooting, waiting for guys to drop.
I do have to make some mention of the mission scenario for this one though. The basic scenario was Pitched Battle and Relic, but the added twist was that the Relic not only gave special rules to all those within 18” (among them Counter Assault and FnP, I think), but also allowed you to add 1 to all your dice rolls. This was so confusing for a while, and altered the game dramatically. Marines were clomping around in what amounted to Terminator Armour, my Forgefiend was firing Heavy 8 Lascannons and the Bloodthirster was hitting everyone on a 2+. That game went strangely!
The +1 to armour save (although AP3 weapons would still nullify it) helped his army’s staying power immensely, but it was just a war of attrition and I had more guns and greater numbers. It was a shame the game couldn’t have been more dynamic, but all credit to my opponent, he was very sanguine about the whole thing. He’d been playing Thousand Sons for well over a decade, and knew the risks and weaknesses of the choice. I still felt bad though.
Regardless, that was the recap of the Friendly. My team trundled through to victory, doubtless spurred on by florid Britishness in the face of adversity and the entire team walked away with a box of Cultists!
A very good time indeed, and if subsequent Friendlies are going to be similarly offbeat, I would thoroughly recommend them!
2 comments:
Big fan of The Overlords and, I have to say, you do a very good job of replicating your voice in writing. Glad to hear Adepticon went well for you and your team!
Thanks for the kind words man!
I pretty much write 'stream of consciousness' style for the blog and as little filtering goes on between my brain and mouth, things can come across a bit... different than intended sometimes. It was initially a bit of a concern in the blog that my conversational (well, monologue-ish) writing style could be read easily.
I lucked out, I think!
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