On Saturday I got to try out Black Templars for the first time. It was my bi-monthly game with a friend that we play at 3,000 points. It's sort of a baby Apoc game, since we allow allies of any sort, but while still obeying the FoC as we test out ideas in large scale combat. I didn't take pictures for a real battle report, but that was a choice on my part. My army was pretty heavily proxied, and I didn't want my first Battle Report to have to have a key chart for reference on what everything was. None-the-less, it was a very good experience and there wasn't much confusion on what was what.
I took an expanded list of my Black Templar army at 1750. During the middle of the game I realized I didn't have my Thunderfire Cannon on the field, as I brought the list and my stuff without a proxy in mind...and in doing so just forgot about it until it was much too late. It could have been a key factor in why I lost, but that's hard to really gauge in such a large game on a large playing area (we play 4'x8' at 3k points). My friend played his Sisters of Battle and allied in Eldar for some movement and heavy firepower.
Instead of a battle report, I'll just do a bit of a performance summary.
- HQs(x3): Chapter Master, bike, power fist, and storm shield - the Warlord has the Eternal Shield.
These guys stole the show on my side of the board. They joined the bike squads and soaked up wounds and demolished Immolators, troops, and characters in close combat. Their orbital bombardments weren't anything to really write home about, but everything landed and did something. Since I was up against Sisters, a few lucky invulnerable saves on vehicles helped save the day from absolute mayhem. While they died in the end, I'm happy with what they brought to the table, and I can't wait to really test out what just one of these guys can do in 1,750 games.
- Troops(x2): Crusader Squad, x9 Initiates, x5 Neophytes, x1 Sword Brethren - in LRC.
Without filling my Heavy Support slots, the LRCs shouldn't have been dedicated transports, but it feels good taking them as such. The squads did admirably, but nothing special outside of being standard marines in a bigger unit with scout bodies for heavier blows. I didn't really take too much time in worrying about placement when they did leave the LRCs, or I could have done a bit better with them. They weren't as good as a counter-assault unit as I hoped, but they were more for heavy numbers for late game objectives. While still potent, they aren't anything to really write home about. I didn't put any upgrades into the squad, however, and that made a pretty big difference in their performance. A flamer and a combi-flamer could have taken them to some dangerous levels when charging out of a LRC. The LRCs worked really well, especially since I was about to cut off his scouting meltaguns during deployment with:
- Troops(x2): Scouts x5, Land Speeder Storm /w Heavy Flamer.
They ended up just being suicide squad, but that was my lack of experience and frantic set up to just get the game started (it was getting passed 8 already, and it's a big enough game that takes some time) and protect my LRCs from his Dominions. But they worked very well. I haven't gone first against my friend's Sisters of Battle yet, or else they could have just wrecked face and the game could have been completely different. I really want to test out some Scout squads heavily in 6th, as infiltrate and scout movements can be huge, especially inside a skimmer with a heavy flamer/multimelta/or assault cannon. I think the Scouts should be boltguns or Shotguns, to spam some shooting and have some defense when the Land Speeder Storm eventually gets gunned down.
- Troops(x3): Bikes x5, x2 Grav Guns, x1 Combi Grav
My first turn of shooting was pretty atrocious with the grav guns. Between a lot of misses and failing to do too much against his vehicles, it did help me come away from his first turn of REALLY bad shooting (he went first, and I lost a biker and my 2 Land Speeder Storms...and that was basically it. Pretty tame considering). I was hoping to get a bit more "OOMPH!" out of their assaulting, to be honest. When they made it in combat, they seemed to die pretty easily. But they are cheap, mobile, and have heavy firepower...so it's not like I went wrong in the least. Still top notch, even in such small numbers.
- Fast Attack(x2): Storm talons
Not much to say about these babies. Armor 11, ceramic plating, and lots of firepower? Yes, please. 125 points with Skyhammer Missiles? Jackpot. I'll field 2 in every army I can.
- Heavy Support(x1): Thunderfire Cannon
What a great answer to so many issues I was having in the game. If only I managed to remember about it during deployment and get it on the field to cause some real wounds to the units I was having trouble with late game. -shakes head in shame-
- Heavy Support(x1): Stormraven
This thing was carrying some Terminators with storm shields and thunder hammers (5 of them, below). I'm not overly fond of this thing at the moment. It's always had about as much success as the Stormtalons, but being 75 more points. It draws the firepower first, and then it starts losing it's cargo in the wreckage. I have high hopes for it, but it was just shoved in the list to keep proxies down, and I had one....so there it was.
- Elites: Terminators x5, all with Thunder Hammers and Storm Shields
They were about as good as I expected. After the Stormraven crashed, all but one survived the wreckage. We weren't sure how emergency disembarking worked in that case, so we just came up with some rules - time to find the real ones. They crashed into a troop unit and started to tie it up in his deployment area. They kept the game won pretty well, but I really consider these guys lackluster without a list tailored a bit better to their inclusions...and these were just tossed in because I had points and the models.
Overall, I was very happy with how my army performed. Black Templars! Hell Yeah! Even without small Crusader Squads or filling up my Heavy Support slots, I felt taking the Black Templar Chapter Tactics played it's part. Their re-rolls and rendings in challenges is pretty top notch, especially since it's free. While we can build some pretty amazing lists around other Chapter Tactics, the passive Black Templar ones are quite solid. The Crusader rule will play it's part in future games, I'm sure, and free Adamantium Will is a bonus considering all the powerful Psykers out there (Eldar and Daemons, I'm looking at you). Without the Thunderfire Cannon on the field, I was down 100 points, and optimally I would have just taken other things in the Stormraven and Terminators stead. With those out, I'd have 525 points to work with to really nitpick the army at 3k points. That's a lot of points when the rest of the army can already handle a lot of the load. Another Chapter Master, another bike squad, and actually fielding a Thunderfire Cannon would do wonders.
Short blurb on allies: I want to try to avoid the White Scars rush, as I feel there will be plenty of those players about. I really like the idea of allying with some Dark Angels or standard Ultramarines, though. The idea of Tiberius in a Land Raider with some Centurian Devastators tickles me, although that's a ton of points when my main love and focus is Black Templars. I'll start looking through that codex for some good ally options for a later army.
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