Warhammer 30k Test Game #3 - Rematch vs Militia

 30k Battle #3 - The Rematch

I discussed the last game I had played out with the friend who made the militia+knights list, and we agreed that his list deserved another chance.  Also, I found an updated version of this vassal module and was eager to try it out!

The Army Lists

Both lists are unchanged, but are posted below for completeness.

Iron Warriors Doom of Olympia 2000 pts

HQ: 1/3 (620 pts)

Warsmith with Charnabal sabre, Combi Melta, Graviton Mace = 120+20+10+10+15 = 175 Warlord Trait: Tyrant of the Dodecathon
Rites of War: Legion Recon Company 

Tartaros Command Squad (5)

    2 extra guys

    2 sets of lightning claws

    1 power fist + grenade harness for banner guy

    2 power fists

    = 110+60+20+(10+5)+20 = 225

Land Raider Proteus with hull heavy bolters = 220

Elites: 2/4 (310 pts)

Techmarine Covenant (2)

    Techmarine with cognis-signum, power axe, bolt pistol = 55+15 = 70

    Techmarine with power axe, bolt pistol = 55 = 55

Contemptor Dreadnought Talon (1)

    Contemptor with gravis plasma cannon and combi-bolter fist = 175+10 = 185

Troops: 4/6 (524 troops + 171 rhinos = 695)

Recon Squad (8) with nemesis bolters + shrapnel bolters

    3 extra models

    Augury scanner + Vox + Vexilla

    upgrade 5 bolters to nemesis bolters

    upgrade 3 bolters to shrapnel bolters

    = 85+36+10+10+10+50+6 = 207

Recon Squad (5) with shotguns

    Sergeant with bolt pistol, shotgun, power sword

    = 85+10 = 95

Rhino with Shrapnel Cannon, searchlight, and dozer blade = 35+10+2+5+5 = 57

Recon Squad (5) with shotguns = 85

Rhino with Shrapnel Cannon, searchlight, and dozer blade = 35+10+2+5+5 = 57

Tactical Squad (10)

     Legion Vexilla + Vox

     Sergeant with power fist and hand flamer

     = 100+10+10+15+2 = 137

Rhino with Shrapnel Cannon, searchlight, and dozer blade = 35+10+2+5+5 = 57

Fast Attack: 0/3

Heavy Support: 3/3 (375 pts)

Whirlwind (1) with dozer blade = 120 + 5 = 125

Vindicator Squad (1) with dozer blade = 120 + 5 = 125

Vindicator Squad (1) with dozer blade = 120 + 5 = 125

Knights and Militia 2000 pts

++ Questoris Household Force Organisation Chart [850Pts] ++

+ Troops: +

Armiger Warglaive Talon [200Pts] (Heavy Stubber)

Armiger Warglaive Talon [200Pts] (Heavy Stubber)

+ Lords of War: +

Knight Questoris [450Pts]: Avenger Gatling Cannon with In-Built Heavy Flamer, Avenger Gatling Cannon with In-Built Heavy Flamer, Heavy Stubber, Infernal Tempest, Stoic Defender, Stormspear Rocket Pod, Warlord

++ Allied Detachment (Imperialis Militia) [1,150Pts] ++

Provenances of War: 01 Warrior Elite, 02 Legacy of the Great Crusade

+ HQ: +

Force Commander [170Pts]

. 1) Force Commander: Charnabal Sabre, Cyber-Familiar, Iron Halo, Laspistol, Mounted Force Commander*, Power Armour

Discipline master on horse with lance [45Pts]

+ Elites: +

Ogryn Brute Squad [280Pts]: (6) Carapace Armour, 6x Thunderstub

. Ogryn Boss: Close Combat Weapon, Thunder Hammer, Thunderstub . 5x Ogryn Brute w/ Close Combat Weapon: 5x Thunderstub

+ Troops: +

Grenadier Squad [105Pts] (10 with 2 meltas)

Grenadier Squad [105Pts] (10 with 2 meltas)

Grenadier Squad [105Pts] (10 with 2 meltas)

+ Fast Attack: +

Cavalry Squad [185Pts]: 11 Carapace Armour, Militia Lances, sergeant with power maul

+ Heavy Support: +

Rapier Battery [165Pts]: 3x Laser Destroyer, 9x Laspistol gunners

Deployment

I selected terrain pieces as per the Siege of Cthonia guidelines and rolled double 6s for the mission and deployment.  Iron Warriors won the roll off for placing the first terrain piece.

Order of Terrain Placement:
Iron Warriors (IW) - place the square set of ruins in the upper deployment zone as a fire base that the whirlwind can hide behind
Knights & Militia (K&M) - place the large building above the lower deployment zone as a LoS blocker that the armigers can flank around
IW - Place the second set of ruins in the lower deployment zone for the same reason
K&M - Place the '3 circles' building in below the second deployment zone to create a similar flanking opportunity

IW - Place the pond directly in the centre of the board, hoping to make it hard to get for the KM line units to get to the objective

K&M - Place the crane vehicles as a barricade near the edge of the pond to allow a safe approach to the objective

IW - Place the 'big disk' building near the crane vehicles to try to make it to busy for the knight to move through

K&M - place the two remaining buildings on the top-left edge of the pond to create a similar safe approach point
IW - Place the big statue near those buildings, again trying to keep the knight out

K&M - Place the crater near the bottom of the board, hopefully a place for the rapiers to hang out

After all this, each player is allowed to redeploy one terrain piece.  

IW - Repositions the big statue slightly, making sure a land raider can fit between it and the nearby buildings

K&M - Moves the big pond out of the centre of the board, ensuring the militia squads can run through it quickly.

Iron Warriors win the roll for Strategic Advantage 2 to 1.  I think for strike and fade you would declare reserves before scattering the objective, so neither side declares any units are staying in reserves.  The objective scatters a mighty seven inches, but must be moved so that it doesn't get stuck in terrain:

Iron Warriors select the top deployment zone, and deployment happens!  I didn't bother infiltrating any of the Iron Warriors recon marine units.

K&M win the roll to redeploy scouts first, and the game ends up looking like this before turn 1:

K&M Seize the initiative!  IW declare that Night Fight is in effect.

K&M Turn 1:
The Knights and militia surge forward.  They can't aim at the highest priority targets due to night fight, but manage to blow up both recon rhinos.  The Ogryns make the charge and smash into the recon squad near the objective, wiping them out.  The only solace was the shotguns managed to wound an ogryn with their overwatch.  The other shotgun squad was pinned when the avenger gatling cannons shredded their rhino.
K&M score 1 point for destroying a unit on the first turn.

IW Turn 1:

Iron warriors didn't have the best turn 1.  The knight wisely used the movement reaction to back away from the dreadnought.  The characters being at the front of the cavalry unit meant they had to take the brunt of the gunfire from the disembarked tactical squad, and so they were slain and the survivors fled off the board.  The armigers did quite well with their invulnerable saves, only taking 3 wounds from the 9 incoming from the demolishers.  Finally, the dreadnought managed to gun down an ogryn but didn't get the 7" needed for the charge.
Iron warriors scored 1 victory points for killing a unit in their first turn.

K&M Turn 2: A roll of a 1 means there is no more night fight.  The combined arms force continues to surge forward.  The rapier battery did a number on the contemptor but the Iron Warriors special reaction meant they were down to one man on a gun after the dust cleared.  Still, 6 shots doing 5 wounds teed up the grenadiers nicely to finish the contemptor off.  The armigers couldn't quite take down the land raider, and the knight completely whiffed in its efforts to finish it off in close combat.  The knight was however somewhat successful in reducing the number of sniper marines posted up in the back line.  Finally, the ogryns charged in and destroyed one of the vindicators.

K&M did not score any victory points in this turn.

IW Turn 2: Yikes, that didn't quite work.  Most units on the top of the board shot at the ogryns, killing 2 and putting some wounds on their sergeant.  The ogryns passed their pinning and leadership tests, meaning they will be a real problem next turn.  The whirlwind wiped out half a squad of grenediers.  The Land Raider didn't do any damage to the Knight with its lascannons.  The command squad bravely charged it, but although the Warsmith managed to take 4 hullpoints the rest of his retinue didn't manage to get any damage in.
IW didn't get any victory points in this turn.

 K&M Turn 3: This was an eventful one!  During the movement phase, the command squad reaction-moved towards the objective which blocked the Armigers from scoring.  Meltashots fired out everywhere, and one armiger charged the command squad.  After all was said and done two terminators survived and the armiger got swept, exploding spectacularly.  This wiped out most of the wounded grenadier squad and pinned the other armiger.  The ogryns blew up the other vindicator, losing one member to that explosion. 
K&M did not score any victory points in this turn, and I messed up on cropping the screenshot :/

IW Turn 3: 

Things start to turn around!  The shotgun recon squad is able to charge into the nearby grenadiers, who moved in reaction and then fell back from shooting to even things out.  The combined power of the units at the top of the board managed to bring down the ogryn sergeant but the lone survivor held on.  Finally, the command squad charged into the armiger and brought it down to one wound, but it stubbornly held on.
The command squad scored on the objective, and very unfortunately for them it scattered towards the knight and a single surviving grenadier.  The score is now K&W: 1 to IW: 4

K&M Turn 4:

Not much shooting left to do with the rapier out of range/LoS for everything.  The knight does some damage to the tactical squad but they do well on their shrouded rolls and pass their morale/pinning tests.  The knight then charges back to help out the grenadiers, massacaring the recon marines with its stomp attacks.  The armiger didn't fare so well, exploding to the haywire assault from the praetor.  This explosion proved too much for the tactical squad, pinning it.  The lone surviving ogryn died in a hail of bolter fire from the tactical squad's overwatch, failing all 3 of the saves he was called to make.

The heroic sergeant of the centre grenadier squad claimed the objective, but unfortunately for him it scattered right back over to the command squad.  The score is now K&W: 5 to IW: 4

IW Turn 4: To succeed here, the iron warriors need to kill the lone sergeant and push the other grenadier squad off the objective.  Luckily, shooting goes well!  The rhino is able to zip down and shoot the sergeant with his shrapnel cannon, and the rest of the army brings the other grenadier squad down to 2 men who fail their leadership test.  They flee 8", allowing the command squad to score a second time.  The treacherous objective followed the fleeing grenediers, but since this mission ends on turn 4 the Iron Warriors win!

Final Score and Conclusions

Knights and Militia: 5VP

Turn 1: Break Their Ranks (1VP for killing transports + Troops)

Turn 2: No VP

Turn 3: No VP

Turn 4: 4VP

End: No VP

Iron Warriors: 10VP

Turn 1: Break Their Ranks (2VP for killing an HQ unit, I forgot about the bonus point until the very end)
Turn 2: No VP

Turn 3: 3VP for taking the objective

Turn 4: 4VP for taking the objective

End: Last Man Standing (5-3) for 1VP

The company standard allowing the Command Squad to score was crucial for the Iron Warriors victory.  Searchlights allowing units to fire at the cavalry on turn 1 were also pretty import in getting the unit to flee.  Using the Iron Warriors reaction with the Contemptor's plasma cannon was exactly as cool as I thought it would be.

The Ogryns were nasty, wiping out a unit per turn until they were destroyed.  Also, I didn't roll any psychic powers for the Knight this turn and it seemed fine without them.  The terminator squad really warps how the knight plays though, against a force that has a lot of long range anti-tank firepower I could see the improved invulnerable save being worth the risk.  My one regret was charging the armiger into the command squad.  Hitting on 5s is really rough, but if he had got some terminators it probably would have been worth it.  

It was nice to see a much closer game between these two forces.  It really came down to the last turn.  The scattering objective in this mission is kind of wild and seems like it could lead to some very swingy games.  The fact that the Knights + Militia stole the initiative and prevented any scoring until turn 3 really evened out that part of the game.

Rules Learnings:

• Knights can only make reactions to certain large units, so they actually can't run away from infantry!
• I completely missed the Provenances of War in the last game, and boy does that extra point of leadership from Warrior Elite help the Militia stay in the fight.  The +1BS on the Grenadiers from Legacy of the Great Crusade also makes their meltaguns quite a bit better.
• Fury of the Legion still works while your unit is pinned!  Those extra snapshots can be clutch.
• Hammer of Wrath only comes in to play for models that make it into base contact with the charge move.  This limits its effect quite a bit for an ogryn unit.

Warhammer 30k Test Game 2 - Knights+Militia vs Iron Warriors

The Lists!

Iron Warriors Doom of Olympia 2000pts

HQ: 1/3 (620 pts)
Warsmith with Charnabal sabre, Combi Melta, Graviton Mace = 120+20+10+10+15 175
Tartaros Command Squad (5)
2 extra guys
2 sets of lightning claws
1 power fist + grenade harness for banner guy
2 power fists
= 110+60+20+(10+5)+20 225
Land Raider Proteus with hull heavy bolters 220

Warlord Trait: Tyrant of the Dodecathon

Rites of War: Legion Recon Company



Elites: 2/4 (310 pts)
Techmarine Covenant (2)
Techmarine with cognis-signum, power axe, bolt pistol = 55+15 70
Techmarine with power axe, bolt pistol = 55 55

Contemptor Dreadnought Talon (1)
Contemptor with gravis plasma cannon and combi-bolter fist = 175+10 185

Troops: 4/6 (524 troops + 171 rhinos = 695)
Recon Squad (8) with nemesis bolters + shrapnel bolters
3 extra models
Augury scanner + Vox + Vexilla
upgrade 5 bolters to nemesis bolters
upgrade 3 bolters to shrapnel bolters
= 85+36+10+10+10+50+6 207

Recon Squad (5) with shotguns
Sergeant with bolt pistol, shotgun, power sword
= 85+10 95
Rhino with Shrapnel Cannon, searchlight, and dozer blade = 35+10+2+5+5 57

Recon Squad (5) with shotguns 85
Rhino with Shrapnel Cannon, searchlight, and dozer blade = 35+10+2+5+5 57

Tactical Squad (10)
Legion Vexilla + Vox
Sergeant with power fist and hand flamer
= 100+10+10+15+2 137
Rhino with Shrapnel Cannon, searchlight, and dozer blade = 35+10+2+5+5 57

Fast Attack: 0/3

Heavy Support: 3/3 (375 pts)
Whirlwind (1) with dozer blade = 120 + 5 125
Vindicator Squad (1) with dozer blade = 120 + 5 125
Vindicator Squad (1) with dozer blade = 120 + 5 125

Knight and Militia 2k
++ Questoris Household Force Organisation Chart (2022 - Questoris Household) [850Pts] ++
+ Troops: +
Armiger Warglaive Talon [200Pts] (Heavy Stubber)
Armiger Warglaive Talon [200Pts] (Heavy Stubber)

+ Lords of War: +
Knight Questoris [450Pts]: Avenger Gatling Cannon with In-Built Heavy Flamer, Avenger Gatling Cannon with In-Built Heavy Flamer, Heavy Stubber, Infernal Tempest, Stoic Defender, Stormspear Rocket Pod, Warlord

++ Allied Detachment (Imperialis Militia) [1,150Pts] ++
Provenances of War: 01 Warrior Elite, 02 Legacy of the Great Crusade

+ HQ: +
IM - Force Commander [170Pts]
. 1) Force Commander: Charnabal Sabre, Cyber-Familiar, Iron Halo, Laspistol, Mounted Force Commander*, Power Armour
IM - discipline master on horse with lance [45Pts]

+ Elites: +
IM - Ogryn Brute Squad [280Pts]: (5 or 6?) Carapace Armour, 5x Thunderstub
. Ogryn Boss: Close Combat Weapon, Thunder Hammer, additional ccw(?)
. 5x Ogryn Brute w/ Close Combat Weapon: 5x Close Combat Weapon
+ Troops: +

IM - Grenadier Squad [105Pts] (10 with 2 meltas)
IM - Grenadier Squad [105Pts] (10 with 2 meltas)
IM - Grenadier Squad [105Pts] (10 with 2 meltas)

+ Fast Attack: +
IM - Cavalry Squad [185Pts]: 11 Carapace Armour, Militia Lances, sergeant with power maul

+ Heavy Support: +
IM - Rapier Battery [165Pts]: 3x Laser Destroyer, 9x Laspistol gunners

The Battle: Crucible of War + Dawn of War. Iron Warriors win the roll for Strategic Advantage and choose to implement night fight.

Unit guide: Iron warriors tank without any guns = whirlwind.  Ultramarine Dreads = Armiger Warglaives.  Valkyrie = Knight with 2x Avenger Gatling Cannon with In-Built Heavy Flamer, heavy stubber, stormspear rockets, Stoic Defender + Infernal Tempest, Lascannon Teams = Rapier laser destroyers. Ogryns have a thunderhammer, carapace armour, and 5 thunderstubs. Each grenedier squad has 2x melta guns. Cavalry include the HQ and a discipline master, all have carapace armour except for the Discipline master. I very much thought about an outflank maneuver with the IW shotgun rhinos, but decided their heavy bolters were too useful to go without.

IW Turn 1: Advance into position and shoot! Scatters are a bit brutal, with the whirlwind and one vindicator both missing. The other vindicator does well vs the ogryns and they end up fleeing off the table. A rhino died searchlighting the rapier but its efforts were rewarded as other units cleaned them up, forcing them to flee at under 50% strength. Also, I found out calvary are immune to pinning!

All 3 objectives were claimed, and the Ogryns are worth 2 points for the Break Their Ranks objective.

MiliKnights Turn 1: Unfortunately, the knight fails his psychic test and loses 3 hull points. The leftmost armiger only manages to immobilize a rhino, but he forced the tactical squad off their objective. The Knight split fire between the immobilized rhino, the snipers, and the exposed shotgun squad, doing a little damage to each but not managing to pin anyone. The rightmost armiger almost got a weapon off the land raider but it passed a shroud check. The calvary pursued the wounded shotgun squad and rode them down in glorious combat.

No objectives were claimed by either side, and the recon squad is worth 1 point for the Break Their Ranks objective.

Iron Warriors Turn 2: Night fight ends.  Turns out Armigers cannot be attacked with Krak grenades because they aren't dreadnoughts... even with the FAQ update.  That's probably an oversight, but I'll play it as it lies.  Also the Iron Warriors legion rule doesn't work against them.  lol

Despite all this the turn goes quite well.  The whirlwind kills all but 2 of the cavalry, causing them to flee with no chance to regroup.  The front-right stormtrooper squad is reduced to a lasgunner and the sergeant, with the vindicator hopefully blocking the armiger from intercepting the land raider.  Sniping out both melta guns in that squad was pretty nice.  On the other flank, the armiger backed away from the contemptor and had some decent return-fire on the vindicator but died to a long-bomb charge from the dread.  

Iron Warriors score on 2 objectives, bringing the total score to 7:1

MiliKnights Turn 2: Unfortunately, the knight fails again and loses 2 more HP.  He's going to push up anyway and try to nuke the nearby scoring units.  The armiger will claim the objective on the right and see if he gets lucky and takes out the land raider.  The knight did fairly well, getting the tactical squad to flee off the objective, finishing the rhino, and charging+killing the sniper squad.  The snipers did manage to take a hullpoint off with the Iron Warriors special reaction.  Nothing else had any success though, aside from the two grenadiers getting a hull point off the rhino with a krak grenade.

Iron Warriors Turn 3: Vindicator finishes off the knight, but the terminator's fail their charge against the armiger.  IW score 1 vp for killing a knight, and the dread does finish off a unit of grenadiers. Oh, and the tactical squad failed to ralley

MiliKnights Turn3: Not much left unfortunately.  Best case scenario is the armiger grabbing slay the warlord and scoring on the objective.  This doesn't work out, with the terminators eventually finishing off the armiger as well as fending off a final desperate charge from the grenadiers.  Victory for the Iron Warriors!

This felt like a bit of a bad matchup, especially with the solid first turn from the iron warriors.  I maybe should have deployed the objectives a bit less far towards the centre, but I thought the Militia troopers needed to be able to take cover while taking objectives.
The Infernal Tempest rolls were ROUGH, not sure if they are worth the coin toss.  Definitely shouldn't have used them with night fight reducing leadership to 6, but I rolled higher than a 7 so that didn't end up mattering too much.  Once the knight got going it was pretty strong.  

Legiones Hereticus - Emperor's Children

After getting the rules from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DVRV0mx2tyE, I decided to type them out for ease of reference.  Here is my summary of the rules for Hereticus Emperor's Children.

Legio Hereticus Rule:

Replace Legiones Astartes (EC) with Legiones Hereticus (EC)

Need to be traitor

For terms of army building, treat as Legiones Astartes (EC)

Can't take Legiones Astartes (EC) upgrades

Can take Legiones Astertes (EC) units, but they become Legiones Hereticus (EC) instead

Legiones Hereticus (Emperor's Children) Special Rules:

Lords of Profligacy

After a shooting attack has been resolved against a unit that is entirely composed of models with the Legio Hereticus (EC) special rule, if that unit is not falling back, its controlling player can choose for it to become stupefied.  If a unit becomes stupefied while pinned or affected by the blind or concussive(x) special rules, it ignores those effects while stupefied.  

A unit that is stupefied can only fire snap shots and cannot make reactions in any phase.  If a unit that is stupefied has a charge declared for it, then that charge is always considered disordered.  Furthermore, whilst stupefied, all models in that unit increase their strength characteristic by +1 and when a model in a stupefied unit suffers an unsaved wound it can make a special stupefied roll to ignore it.  Stupefied rolls may not be taken against attacks that have the instant death special rule.  Roll a D6 for each unsaved wound.  On a 6+ the wound is ignored.  Add 1 to stupefied rolls made for units which have the fearless special rule.  A stupefied roll is a damage mitigation roll.

At the end of its controlling player's following turn, the unit is no longer stupefied.  While it is stupefied, a unit does not take further morale checks in the movement or shooting phase and cannot be pinned.  If the unit is forced to move (like falling back) it is no longer stupefied.  If assaulted the unit will fight as usual but enemy units do not receive the imitative penalty for having charged a unit through difficult terrain if applicable.  If a unit becomes stupefied while making a charge, then that charge continues as normal but is counted as disordered.  Units that are locked in combat can be stupefied, but still take morale checks as normal.

Advanced Reaction: Twisted Desire

This advanced reaction may be made once per battle during the opposing player's shooting phase when any enemy unit declares a shooting attack targeting a friendly unit under the reactive player's control that is entirely composed of models with the Legio Hereticus (EC) special rule that is not falling back.  The reacting unit immediately becomes stupefied and adds 2 to stupified rolls made against wounds inflicted as part of the shooting attack that triggered this reaction.

The Divine Instruments

May take The Broken Mirror or Paragon of Excellence (existing EC warlord traits that weren't loyalist only)

The Phoenician's Hubris

Models with this rule may not select the Phoenix Warden consul upgrade.  Phoenix Terminator Squads replace Living Icons and Phoenix Retinue with the Fallen From Grace special rule

Fallen From Grace

A unit with this special rule gains +1 to the score used to calculate the winner of a combat during the assault phase if it is wihtin 6" of another friendly unit with the Legiones Hereticus (EC) special rule.  Gain +2 instead if withing 6" of Fulgrim Trasfigured.

Rites of War: Hereticus Emperor's Children get two new rights of war.  Both require Fulgrim Transfigured.  One lets you take up to 5 HQ and gives them Hatred in challenges.  The other allows you to deepstrike Fulgrim Transfigured in (but not charge).  Note, Legiones Hereticus rules mean these guys can't take the normal Rites of War, so they are severely limited.

Armoury of Indulgence

May take phoenix power spears and power rapiers (as per regular)

Have three alternative wacky surgery upgrades (still 15 points per character)

Warp Scream: Gain Hammer of Wrath (1), or +1 to the rule if you already have it.  Hammer of Wrath attacks made by this model have Rending (5+)

Abhorent Sensoria: Gain precision shots (5+) and precision strikes (5+)

Sublingual Glands: Gain the sublingual glands weapon: Range = Template, Strength = -, AP = 5, Type = Assault 1, Fleshbane, Blind

Can take Fulgrim Transfigured (obviously)

Warhammer 30k Test Game - 2k IW vs EC

Did a quick game to see how things flow in vassal and make sure I have a handle on 30k rules!

Step 1: Choose Armies

2k Emperors Children Legiones Hereticus List

Centurion Esoterist
Centurion Champion with jump pack, warp scream
7 Palatine Blades with Phoenix Sabers, warp scream
Dreadnought with multi melta, hand-mounted flamer
Dreadnought with multi melta, hand-mounted bolter
15 man tactical squad with chainswords, vexilla, and serge with artificer armour and phoenix spear
10 man assault squad with 2 power axes and serge with artificer armour, phoenix spear, and warp scream
10 man scout squad with 1 shotgun, 9 BP/CCW, serge with phoenix spear and sublingual glands
20 man lesser daemon squad
1 Javelin Land Speeder with lascannons and multi melta
2 pod Deathstorm Rocket Pod squadron

2k Iron Warriors 'Recon' List

Warsmith with combi melta, grav mace, and charnabal blade
+Retinue: 5 tartaros terminators with 3 power fists, 2 double claw, grenade harness
+Transport: Land Raider Proteus with hull mounted heavy flamer
Techmarine Covenant: one with signum, one barebones
10 man tactical squad with vox and vexilla, and serge with combi flamer
+Transport: Rhino with searchlight, shrapnel cannon, dozer blade
10 man tactical squad with vox and vexilla, and serge with power fist and hand flamer
+Transport: Rhino with searchlight, shrapnel cannon, dozer blade
10 man recon with scanner, vox, and vexilla, 5 snipers and 5 shrapnel bolters
+Transport: Rhino with searchlight, shrapnel cannon, dozer blade
10 man recon squad with shotguns, and serge with power sword
+Transport: Rhino with searchlight, shrapnel cannon, dozer blade
Squad of 2 vindicators with dozer blades
Oldschool whirlwind with dozer blade

Step 2: Select mission and deployment map

Mission: 1d6 roll = 5 = Take and Hold (Each player places 1 objective in opponents half)

Map: 1d6 roll = 2 = Hammer and Anvil (Long table)

Terrain - picked first then placed 
2 10x10 non-los blocking: Pond + Rubble

2 6x6 'specific' area terrain: Craters + Trees

6 4x4 buildings/ruins terrain: 1x impassible big rock formations, 2x ruins, 3x impassible big buildings

Iron Warriors win roll to place first piece.  They end up moving a building out of the centre of the table, and then the EC move another building back in its place.  In the end the table looks like this:

Before the mission starts, EC declare they are going to keep the daemons and deathstorm pods in reserve.  IW keep nothing in reserves.

Strategic Advantage: Playing this as if Recon Company RoW gives IW a reroll here.  IW win even without the reroll and elect to go first and have night fighting on the first turn.  Objectives are placed, armies are deployed, and EC don't steal the initiative. 
Note - Augury Scanners are actually really nice to stop the scouts from infiltrating near the bulk of IW forces.

Iron Warriors Turn 1
Initial focus is on taking care of the scouts before they are a problem for the tactical squad!  Luckily, no vehicles are immobilized moving into the pond.  Combined fire from several units brings the scout unit down to one model, with the recon snipers taking out the sergeant but a big boost in survivability due to the EC's faction reaction.  IW also pushed up and took out 4 assault squad marines, but failed to wound either dreadnought.  One Dread returns fire but doesn't scratch the land raider.  The scout and assault marines are now stupefied, and as such do not need to take leadership or pinning tests.  Iron Warriors score 1 point with their objective.

Highlights -- Wow that new Emperor's Children reaction is effective.  The scouts took a tonne of fire.  Being able to snipe out the sergeant with the recon squad was also cool.

Emperor's Children Turn 1
The Emperor's Children fight back, taking some hull points off the land raider and a vindicator with their shooting.  The shotgun squad retreated to their rhino, so the assault marines charged it and wrecked it.  Unfortunately, the land speeder, both dreadnaughts, and palatine blades didn't land their charges, and the lone scout died to an overwatch reaction.  The deamonettes were summoned in and wrecked a second rhino, getting ready to charge into the wall of tactical marines.  Due to the penetrating hits, both the Retinue and the Shotgun Recon squad failed their morale checks and can only snapfire next turn.  The Emperor's Children score one point at the end of the turn, and night fight ends.
Highlights -- Using the movement reaction to pile into a rhino feels pretty nice, but if the enemy charges and destroys the rhino then it really only saves you one turn.  Nice for a good shooting unit but it turns out not to have mattered too much with the shotguns.  Also, the demon summoning psychic power has good reach.  Getting them out on the first turn for a charge is ideal.

Iron Warriors Turn 2

The iron warriors unleash fire upon the deamonettes, killing most of them.  The rhino manages to do a wound to the palatine blades, stupefying them.  The land raider manages to take a wound off the closer contemptor and two off the landspeeder, and the retinue surges out to fight the dreadnought.  The vindicators and snipers work together to finish off the land speeder.  The whirlwind also tried to contribute, but tragically scattered the shot onto the retinue, dealing 3 wounds to them!  The shotguns repositioned and fired ineffectually at the assault marines.  The Retinue barely made their charge into the dreadnought.  They lost one member but managed to reduce it to a single remaining wound.  The Iron Warriors score 1 point.
Highlights -- I can't believe the whirlwind killed a terminator and a half!  The first scatter roll was bad and the reroll from the vox was even worse.  It was nice to see that my anti-dreadnought HQ squad does the trick though. Deamons were pretty easy to kill despite their toughness 5 on early turns, it's a good thing the Iron Warriors have a lot of anti-infantry fire on that side of the board.

Emperor's Children Turn 2

I didn't realize deathstorm rocketpods come in on turn 1?!?  So they come in now and plink away at stuff.  The snipers get a lucky weapon destroyed on one of them with their free interceptor reaction, but the survivor pins that squad in return.  A contemptor also wrecks the wounded vindicator with shooting, then it is time for charges.  The deamonettes are shredded by overwatch, leaving only one survivor who failed its charge.  The palatine blades destroyed a tactical squad, the retinue finished off their dreadnought, the other dread rolled bad and only did 1 hull point to Crew Stun the remaining vindicator, and the assault squad destroyed the shotgun recon marines.  The Emperors Children get 3 points, as the deamonette's failed charge brought it just into range of the objective!

Highlights -- Deathstorm rockets are cool, interceptor reactions are a bit lame.  Palatine Blades are absurdly strong with warp scream, getting 14 auto-hit strength 5 rending 5+ rolls at ini10 pretty much won the combat before it started.  The assault marines were also quite strong, with their phoenix spear holding sergeant handily winning a dual against a non-2+ opposing sergeant.  The contemptor bouncing off a vindicator was pretty funny.

Iron Warriors Turn 3

It's bad.  The land raider and vindicator fail to wound the remaining dreadnought.  Even with its reroll the whirlwind misses the bunched up assault marines.  The retinue loses all its terminators due to overwatch, so the Warsmith only kills 2 marines before dying in combat.  At least the rhinos killed the remaining demonette.
Highlights -- Not much!  That overwatch reaction from the tactical squad into the Retinue was brutal, leaving only the Warsmith with a single wound.  The fact that the whirlwind did 3 wounds to the terminators earlier pretty much sealed the game at this point, as the Iron Warriors needed to be able to score both objectives to catch up.

Emperor's Children Turn 3

Combat is very successful.  All that is left is the stunned land raider and a tactical squad.  The deathwind pod once again pinned the recon marines.  They used the iron warriors special reaction to shoot back, killing the one drop pod but losing enough models to the 'gets hot' rule that they had to flee.  EC score another point.

Highlights -- Wow, the deathstorm pinning the recon squad twice in a row was pretty brutal.  Iron Warriors had really bad leadership rolls in this game, only passing 1 of the 5 tests they needed.  Having units in transports means you need a lot of extra psuedo-pinning tests when those transports get targeted.

Iron Warriors Turn 4

Tactical squad moves a little so it can technically score, then opens up with a desperate fury of the legion on the palatine blades.  The blades evade just in case, but still take a wound and are stupefied.  The land raider fires at the librarian and the dreadnought, missing the former and doing 1 wound to the latter.  That's the turn.

Highlights -- That stupefied rule really takes the sting out of all of the pinning/leadership tests this Iron Warriors army wants to force.  Being forced to snapfire is pretty rough, but can be balanced out without too much issue by smart list building choices.

Emperor's Children Turn 4 is not needed, they just take the 1VP for their objective.

Final Score:

Iron Warriors held for 2 turns, and get First Blood due to the scout dying during EC turn 1 for a total of 3VP.

Emperor's Children held one objective for 3 turns and both objectives on 1turn, and they Slayed the Warlord and had Last Man Standing, for a total of 8VP.

Takeaways: Not sure on the amount of terrain, but deploying on the short edge is a bit odd so that might just be how it goes.  Iron Warriors list had a bit of bad luck at some critical points, and deathstorm drop pods are as cool as I thought they would be.  Palatine Blades with warp scream are also hilarious, and the scouts did a good job of soaking up fire on turn 1.

Battlecon Solo - Baroness Ancella's Crypt

Booting up the ol' blog for a battle report of sorts.  I played through the first solo scenario from Battlecon - Devastation today.  It's an interesting sort of adaptation of a competitive 1 on 1 board game!

To start, you pick a character and get an amount of gold to spend on items!  This starter mission gave me 100, which I spent as follows:

Consumables - 1 use only, and can only use 1 per ante:
Life Potion (10g) >> ante to gain 4 hp
Metabolic Booster (10g) >> ante to gain +4 priority on the current attack
Limit Breaker (30g) >> ante to Use your finisher

Armour - permanently increases your max health:
Bronze Armour (15g) >> start with 30hp instead of 20

Trinkets:
Displacer Charm (30g) >> ante to move one space, cycles through discard

For my character, I chose the tag team werewolf fighter Karin.

The intro mission in the box is Baroness Ancella's Crypt, which runs you through the following path.  You can see that each different mission has a sort of speed clear bonus, which either rewards you with a health increase or changes which encounter you fight next.

I start off in the Zombie Room!  Initial setup looks like this, and you can see the numbered tokens that are used to randomize enemy behaviour.  I've also pasted in the stats for the zombies.

This room starts of fairly easy.  The zombies are mostly slow, and you regain 3hp if you manage to kill them all in 5 attacks or less.  I made quick work of the mob, not even taking a hit.  The strategy was pretty simple, just stay back and kill them one at a time.  

Next up was the Imp Room.  These enemies are a bit more tricky, with movement and ranged attack options as well as a very fast and deadly suicide attack.

Note that as you move from room to room, you reset your board as if starting a new game of Battlecon but your health total does not change.  I start this game off with a Full Moon Grasp and ante priority, aiming to quickly take out the first imp.  This works great, but the second imp gets his Rushdown attack and does the first bit of damage to me!  

For my second attack, I used a slower move and both imps ended up using the Rushdown attack.  In multi-character Battlecon games like this the fighters are not allowed to be on the same space, so only one imp is able to get in any damage.  I retaliate and leave only one imp remaining, which I easily finish off as Feral Claw out-speeds yet another Rushdown.

Since I won this fight in less than 4 attacks, I regain 3 of the 4 hp that I lost in the battle.  Next up, the last basic fight is in the Whispering Room.  This one is the first to add a sort of puzzle element to the fight.  You can see in the picture below that the Wisps cannot be hit by me if I have moved, so I have to plan out my attacks and I am not able to use any of Karin's powerful movement options.

The other interesting thing about the wisps is that they only have one attack, with its range being the variable factor.  This proves to be pretty interesting, as I can easily guarantee that I will win priority.  This leads into a rough first beat, as I take out the first wisp but take 6 damage from the remaining three.  I basically churn through the rest of them, taking another 2 damage in the process.  I do use my health option in this room, leaving me with a total of 24 health.

This is the fight were I really learned to appreciate Howling Grasp, as I finished the last wisp off by attacking with this fast combination of Style + Base that launches from the Jager (the wolf token).  By winning in less than 5 beats, I was able to advance to the Filthy Ooze Room, which seems like the e of easier he two routes available in this mission.  This is where the rooms start getting challenging, you'll see that the ooze is quite a bit tougher than the enemies that I've fought previously.

This match really showed off the power of the 'Coordinating' style.  You don't want to be beside this ooze at all if possible, and Coordinating stopped it on Jager's space on the first turn as pictured above.  I started by dealing with the wisp nearest to me, as pictured above.  The armour from Coordinating also reduced the damage from the farther wisp, so I only take 1 damage from it.  
The second round also goes quite well, as Howling Grasp comes in clutch again, hitting and stunning the ooze.  I use my Displacer Charm for the first time here, which lets me back off and dodge the attack from the surviving wisp.

In the third round, I use a Dual Shot to stun the ooze again and move Jager towards the other wisp.

In the fourth, Feral Claw also hits and stuns the ooze, leaving it on a single hp.  Jager advances on to the wisp's space, and it once again fails to hit me.

Next, I set up a Full Moon Drive with my Displacer Charm activated again.  The ooze rolls its defensive move, but I bash through the armour and finish it off.  The wisp whiffs its attack, and Jager is still on its position.

Finally, the classic Howling Grasp returns to allow me to strike the wisp and finish it off.

For finishing this round off in less than 10 beats, the starting hp of each enemy in the next room is reduced by 3.  This is quite nice, as it's a nasty one!  The Horde of Imps room respawns the Imps as they die, but I only have to kill the werewolf to win.  Werewolves are also quite nasty, as you'll see below.

I start the fight with a Coordinating Drive, with the intent of slowing down the werewolf's advance and finishing off the closer imp.  This works fairly well, finishing that imp off and getting two chip damage on the werewolf when Jager stops its advance.  The second imp does its classic Rushdown attack, taking 2 hp off me.

For my second attack, I go for a gamble and it pays off huge!  Howling Claw with an extra shot of power is exactly enough to finish off the werewolf.  If it had got another Wall Leap or Counter Claw off here I would have taken some major damage, but instead it got Crossover for its attack and that was enough for me to get the win.

After this, only the boss fight remained!  This one was another step up in complexity.  It uses the standard 7 space board instead of the larger 9 space board that you've seen in previous screenshots.  Also, the spaces are marked.  You can only damage Ancella's ghost if you are in the same type of square as her.  Finally, she has a full suite of 6 different attacks that all seemed quite strong.  I'm going into this battle with 21hp, and she starts with 22.

Full Moon claw gets me in for a decent start and hits for 2, but Ancella's Wail gets 1 damage back as she attacks through the Jager's space.

Feral Shot's movement options let me duck and dodge around Living Death, getting in for 3 damage and taking none in return.

In the third beat, I use my Priority potion to boost Dual Drive, getting in another solid hit.

Next, the ghost gets its scream attack, which hits at a blistering priority of 8.  This only does 1 damage, but it stuns me and spawns a wisp at the other end of the arena.  

Full Moon Grasp teleports me out of range from the wisp and right beside the Ghost.  This only does 2 damage, but it also prevents her from doing any damage in return.  This teleport also puts me out of the wisp's attack range.

In the sixth beat, Dual Drive keeps me up close and hits for 4 damage.  This stuns Ancella, and the wisp is out of range. 

Feral Strike has priority in this beat, so I managed to hit for 4 damage and stun!  The wisp is in range though, so I take 2 damage in return.

Full Moon Claw with anted priority lets me get in first, closing the distance on Ancella once again and hitting for 2dmg, stunning the ghost.  Armour from Full Moon blocks the wisp's damage.  

I try to mix things up next and use Switch Grasp with anted priority.  This misses due to Ancella's Living Death attack moving the ghost out of range.  She retaliates by hitting me for 4, though the wisp is thankfully out of range.  At this point, I'm down to 10hp and Ancella is down to 5.

Go for Lunar Cross using my last potion!  Lucky for me, Ancella does not move so I'm able to finish her off with my finishing move.

All in all, this was a fun couple of hours.  Funnily enough, the 10 hp that I had remaining was the hp that I had bought with my armour, so that certainly worked out well.  This seemed like a nice way to test out a character.  I felt like I had a decent grasp on Karin's capabilities after these 'vs AI' matches.   I think I see some more Saturday morning solo Battlecon in my future!