Adeptus Titanicus - First outing with all Knight Force
Jim was interested in having a game during the time after Xmas before the New Year, so will decided on a game of Adeptus Titanicus. Jim was looking to use is new Iconoclast Titan with big shiny close combat weapons - I had just managed to build and undercoat my new Knight Banner purchases - so the scene was set for 'David versus Goliath' game.
Table set up - some line of sight blocking scenery and ruins (old Epic scenery) but still plenty of avenues to advance and draw line of sight (I won't be able to hide all my Knight Banners.
We then drew cards from the 'Open Wars' set
Deployment Map - 'A Chance Engagement' - restricted our deployment to being in the corners 12" x 8"
Primary Objectives - 'Acquisition' - One objective each placed no more than 12" from the centre, worth 15VP if held/carried by a Unit at the end of the game; otherwise 7VP if not carried but unit within 6" and no enemy in 6"
Planetary Effects - 'Industrial World' - Increase the strength and dice of Flamestorm weapons by 1 (Jim had a double Flamestorm Warhound in his force)
Battlefield Effects - 'Thick Smog' - Attacks made against a target by a unit that is further away than twice the targets scale in inches automatically miss.
This last one really was a tough one for Jim's force as he would need to be within 10" to target my Acastus Knights (scale 5), 8" to target my Cerastus Knights (scale 4), 6" to target my Questoris Knights (scale 3) and 4" to target my Armiger Knights (scale 2) - While I would be able to target his Warhounds at 12" (scale 6) and his Iconoclast at 24" (scale 12).
But then again I would need to get close if I wanted to melee assault his titans (those Cerastus Knights need to get into melee).
Deployment
Jim places his Iconoclast on his right flank, while the maniple of 4 Warhounds go on the other flank, I split my Lances across the two zones, placing my Cerastus Knight Lance on the left flank and the Questoris Knight Lance on the right.
Turn One and Two
Jim manages to get full stride orders off on both units and closes the distance between us, while I manage to fail my first order and just had to move normally
After the Iconoclast completed its combat full stride (with boosted distance, so having moved 14"), this allowed my Arcastus Knights with Conversion Beamers to shoot him now he had moved within 24" - managed to only drop 2 shields as Jim pushed for 'reroll 1s on shields'
Turn Three
Jim manages to win initiative and moves round ready to engage (though I feel Jim messed up with the Iconoclast as he stands it too near the tall spire)
Not much shooting as Jim was still too far out, my shooting was more successful as I had range, with shots from the Arcastus Magma Lascannons and missiles stripping shields from the two lead Warhounds then some small damage from the rest of the Questoris Knights (I messed up should have fired the Questoris Knights first to strip shields)
Turn Four
I again failed to get any orders off (so no charges), but did manage to walk all my Knights into combat with all four Warhounds. unfortunately for Jim his Iconoclast was still navigating the Spire building.
Many attacks later and three of the four Warhounds were destroyed, unfortunately the scattering of the Conversion Beamers and Magma Cannons did more damage to me than Jim's attackes
Then Jim rolls a 10 on the dice and the game was over.
With the destroyed Warhounds, Jim had lost hold of his objective but had both his Iconoclast and remaining Warhound within 6" of it but unfortunately I had a Cerastus Knight also within 6"
Meanwhile since turn two I had grabbed my objective with a unit of Armigers and ran as fast as I could away from the enemy, even after losing two Armigers to a Barrage Stratagem I still held it for 15VPs
Meanwhile I had a Secondary Objective of 'Hold the Line' which required me to stop Jim getting within 24" of my board edge for another 10VP
Whereas Jim had 'Cut off the Head' in which he had to kill all Banners in my Seneschal's Lance (I still had a Questoris and a Meagra Banner left.
Just to add to more hurt to Jim's force I had taken a Tertiary Objective of 'Decapitating Strike' - if you kill the Princeps Seniores you gain VPs equal to half it's scale - which was one of the Warhounds I had destroyed.
Giving me 28 v 0 score
I think two things contributed greatly to the win - One the 'Thick Smog' which dramatically reduced Jim's shooting, secondly the Iconoclast struggled to get into combat (I had played 'Interference' which stopped the Iconoclast doing an extra 7" move)
