vs Knights/Custodes/Scions

Oh hey there.

Earlier this week I faced off against a combination of Imperial Knights, Adeptus Custodes, and Scions. I'm hesitant to call it Imperial Soup, because I feel like there's such negative association with that moniker and this list was being piloted by my good buddy Matt. "Imperial Soup" just sounds pejorative. As a result of my immersion in competitive forums, perhaps? Probably. In any case, I had the pleasure of playing Matt once again. He's going to LVO with me later this month so any practice games are helpful!

We played Frontline Warfare from CA19. I'm really enjoying those missions so far. We rolled up Search and Destroy deployment.

Coming down to the deadline for finalizing my LVO list. This is my current iteration, which I ran twice earlier in December but I haven't talked about on here. I'm sticking with my Dreadknights (I just finished painting them and I love them), and I'm starting my GMNDK on the field. My deep strike gang consists of the Paladins, Grand Master Simandus, the Brotherhood Ancient, and my Brother-Captain. So far that combo has been working. I run Simandus as Draigo to give my Paladins full rerolls (excepting any negative modifiers -- hopefully changed in PA this month), utilize the BroCap as a beat stick and Warlord for FttF, and give the Ancient the Banner of Refining Flame for that sweet 1d6 smite. I'm liking this list so far. The biggest issue I'm having is that I have three really big targets that start out on the field and soak a ton of fire turn one. I may have to refine that.

Matt brought two Knight Wardens and an Armiger Helverin in a Super Heavy detachment, a Supreme Command detachment of three Custodes Shield Captains (one of which was on a Jetbike and who was also his Warlord), and then a Battalion of Scions. The Scions all had plasma guns, and then there was a Scion Command Squad that had four plasma guns. Everything here is multi-damage weapons, with like a ton of volume of fire. Immediately I recognized that this was a problem. The missions dictated that the objective in the opponent's deployment zone is worth 4 points every turn, so I made it my goal to deep strike as close to his objective as I could and then charge in and hunker down. Paladins in cover are very difficult to move.

I want to take a moment to appreciate Matt's absolutely gorgeous Knights.

The Flawless Praetor

Vox Barbarus

God, what beautiful models.

I was the Attacker in this mission, so I was slated to go first. I deployed accordingly.

Gonna rush on forward and take points.

Then this happened:

Stealing is bad.

He seized, with all of my guys out in the open and within Knight range.

Oh lawd he comin

I thought he was gonna rush his Dawneagle Shield Captain forward, but he played it cagey and held him back. He was Matt's Warlord, after all, so I can see why he was playing it safe.

This dude is T6, 3++, 5+++, which is just obnoxious.

None of his Knights actually made it into melee range on his first turn, but he killed one of my Dreadknights in shooting. I weathered it and moved forward.

I yeeted a Termie squad across the board to try and get at his Armiger that was standing on his home objective. They landed, smote and shot him, and then failed their charge. Alas!

My GMNDK moved forward toward one of the center objectives. I knew he had the fire power to ruin me, so I wanted to start capitalizing the objectives as quick as I could. My GMNDK failed to cast Sanctuary (huge bummer), so he was charging a Knight with only a 4++. No matter! I was going to waste him in my fight phase, so he'd get his points back.

After I completed the charge, Matt used this stratagem:

Oh, hello, I guess.

His Shield Captain then made an eleven inch charge and swooped into my GMNDK. Knocked him down 10 wounds, rendering him almost useless. My GMNDK valiantly swung at the Knight (I couldn't attack the Shield Captain because he wasn't the target of my charge), but only dealt 3 wounds. The Knight crushed him. I burned Only In Death Does Duty End to fight again before death, and dealt 2 wounds. Yikes.

On his next turn he started moving his units into position to take out my Terminators. He kept his Scions in reserve to counter deploy against my Paladins (smart!). His Armiger moved away from my yeeted Termies to get a better firing angle, and I noticed something.

There was no objective under the Armiger. His home objective was in a ruin 12" to the left. I have no idea how I misinterpreted that. I was totally out in the open for no reason!

This Custodian walked up and started wasting my Terminators.

No matter. Now my Paladins were on the board and we were gonna charge his psyker in those ruins and claim the objective that way.

We succeeded. It happens sometimes!

I consolidated into the ruins. This was great! They had Sanctuary on them and were in cover, and settled onto my opponents objective. I just needed to stay there and I'd farm 4 VP per turn. This was going to shoot me up quick. In fact, at the end of turn two I had 8 VP to his 2. Things were looking good so long as I held this point.

On his turn three he deep struck in six squads of Scions with plasma guns and his Command Squad, flanking my Paladins from either side of the ruins.

On my next turn the only living models I had in that group were Simandus and the Brother-Captain. The Paladins just got erased by mass plasma fire. I killed the Shield Captains that had come in to engage my heroes, but on his next turn he plasma'd both of these guys into glowing piles of goo.

He brought his Dawneagle Shield Captain up to my home objective and I did some cheeky tricks with falling back and counter charging to keep him from killing my troop Terminators that were guarding the objective, but this was only turn three. He still had two Knights on the field and his unkillable Warlord up in my objective. We did some quick math and it became evident that I was definitely going to get overrun on points and lose all of my models.

At the end of turn six he had 16 points and I had 15.

Considering all that happened, this fight was much closer than I thought it was going to be. Very educational, too. I am more than likely going to face similar lists at LVO, so this was excellent practice for trying to earn points while on the backfoot. And Matt is just always so fun to play against. A good game!

Next week I m playing against Raven Guard again. I need to mix up my list a bit for that. Any suggestions, vacuum of internet opinion?