Guest writer Matt E. brings us a tale of two powerful lists: War Convocation with a Librarius Conclave vs. a Tunderstar, both sporting the new Space Marine Psychic Powers! Check the Tacitcs Corner for more great battle reports!
This game was what I’m sure all of you want to see. It was a prep match we played last night for the Storm of Silence GT. The first Major ITC tournament with the release of the new psychic powers. We both brought the librarius conclave to get max cheese in our lists.
I brought:
War Convocation
Tech Priest Dominus with Stasis field, macrostubber, erradication ray, Raiment of the Technomartyr, Digital weapons, infoslave skull
3 Kataphron Destroyers with grav and flamers
3 Kataphron Destroyers with grav and flamers
Skitarii Battle Maniple
3 Sydonian Dragoons with taser lance and phosphor serpenta
1 Onager Dunecrawler with Neutron Laser and all the upgrades
5 Sicarian Infiltrators with fletchette blasters and taser goads. Phase Taser
5 Sicarian Ruststalkers with chordclaw and transonic razor. Omniscient Mask
5 Skitarii Rangers with 2 plasma calivers and omnispex. Arkhan’s Divinator. Sarg. Has haywire maul and pistol
5 Skitarii Vanguard with 2 plasma calivers and omnispex. Pater Radium. Sarg. Has Haywire maul and pistol
Imperial Knights
Knight Warden with Stormspear Rocket Pod, meltagun, chainsword, gatling cannon, heavy flamer
Inquisitorial Detachment
Inquisitor Coteaz
White Scars Librarius Conclave
Lvl 2 Librarian with force staff and auspex
Lvl 1 Librarian with force axe and auspex
Lvl 1 Librarian with force sword and Hunters eye
I rolled on Geokinesis with my Librarius Conclave and got
Earth Blood, Landquake, Warp Quake, and Shifting Worldscape. Coteaz rolled Perfect Timing and Psychic Shriek
My warlord trait was on command and I got reroll 1’s in shooting for everyone within 12″ of my warlord
His force contained an equal amount of power running the feared Thunderwolf/Ravenwing/Librarius Conclave. Sorry I don’t know Thunderwolf or Ravenwing detatchments that well
Thunderwolves’s
Thunder Wolf battle leader: Power Fist, stormshield, 2 wolfs, runic armor
Thunder Wolf battle leader: Power Fist, stormshield, 2 wolfs, runic armor
Thunder Wolf battle leader: Power Fist, stormshield, 2 wolfs, runic armor
Thunder Wolf battle leader: Power Fist, stormshield, 2 wolfs, runic armor
Ravenwing
Chaplain: Bike
Apothacary: Bike
2 Black knights
3 Bikers: 2xgrav guns
3 Bikers: 2xgrav guns
5 Scouts
5 Scouts
5 Scouts
Ultramarines Librarius Conclave
Tigerius
Lvl 2 Librarian: Force axe, Bike
Lvl 2 Librarian: Force sword, Bike
Lvl 1 Librarian: Force Sword, Bike
I don’t remember all his psychic powers but Tigerius definitely pulled through for him getting both Electrodisplacement and Veil of Time. One of his lvl 1 Librarians also got Endurance. Those were the important powers. His warlord Trait was reroll reserves (which he had none) but he got +1 to seize on top of the +1 for my Lord of War.
We played ITC mission 1: Emperors Will.
He won the roll for first turn and decided to go first.
He deployed his deathstar in the center of his deployment zone flanked by his 2 units of bikes
I counter deployed in the center, screening with my dragoons and throwing my grav on the top level of both ruins, coteaz going with the squad on the left and the conclave and my warlord going with the squad on the right. My vanguard and ruststalkers hid in the lower level of the ruin to my right.
He won the roll off for infiltrate and put his scouts 6″ in front of the death star as he couldn’t get much closer than that. I put my Infiltrators 6″ in front of the ruins to my right. I won the roll-off for scout moves and scouted my dragoons forward within 12″ of his scouts so he couldn’t scout any more. My infiltrators doing the same to his scouts on my right. The scouts on my left were able to get 12″ away from my ruin with coteaz and the grav. Then his bikes scouted forward to be even with his scouts in the center of the board.
I failed to seize on a 6+ rerollable with Coteaz and Wolf-star had the first turn. He rolled hold objectives 1 & 2 for his maelstrom. His movement had everyone rush towards me (surprise).
The psychic phase saw him getting 9 dice to my 7. He threw 3 at electrodisplacement and actually failed rolling 1,1,2, but rerolled with Tigerius and got all 3 which I didn’t try to deny. His star switched with the bikes that had scouted forward which put him within 1″ of both my infiltrators and my dragoons. He then threw 4 at Veil of Time and got all 4 which I also didn’t try to deny. He then through 2 at Endurance, getting both and I was able to deny throwing all 10 of my dice at it. Leaving the thunderwolf star with rerollable saves 1″ from my face.
His shooting phase:….he shot his grav at my dunecrawler and didn’t roll any 6’s
His assault phase: He charged the star into my infiltrators and dragoons. Hammer of wrath managed to do 1 glance, Tigerius went next and Insta-gibbed an Infiltrator. I attacked next with all my infiltrators and dragoons and rolled more 6’s to hit than I ever have resulting in 23 wounds. Of which he actually failed 1 and I did a wound to a battle leader. He then proceeded to power fist his way through everybody decimating everything and the explosions from the dragoons did 5 more wounds, which were all saved.
My turn 1. I rolled maelstrom 1,2,3 which was hold objectives 1 and 2, and linebreaker, all of which impossible as his star was sitting on the one objective I was close enough to actually get to. He had all his battle leaders closest to my grav with 3++ rerollable, and my grav was wounding him on 6+ anyways cause of all the wolves. I chose to twin-link my army with my canticals and give my skitarii +1 BS. Then I ran everyone I could into the ruin on my right, leaving my rangers right in front of his star cause they had nowhere to run anyways, my dunecrawler went to the ruin to my left.
My psychic phase I threw almost all my dice into shifting worldscape and ran the ruin with everyone in it away from his star… but it had a big enough footprint I just went from one side of the star to the other. But at least it was where all the squishy dogs would die first. I then cast perfect timing with coteaz on 3 dice but failed all 3.
My shooting phase: Coteaz and the grav shot at his 3 man biker squad on my left. You’d think 36 twin linked grav could kill 3 bikes, but it was not to be and one bike lived. My dunecrawler fired at his other 3 man squad and scattered off with the blast and the stubbers did nothing. My Knight then used his heavy flamer on the scout squad in front of him killing 4 of the 5. His 3 krak missiles finished off the last bike that coteaz couldn’t kill. And the gatling gun only killed one bike from his other 3 man squad. My rangers shot everything at his 5 scouts in the middle and killed 4 leaving 1 left again. My vanguard fired their plasma into the star hoping to kill the one dog I needed to make my grav effective against it. I did better than I expected and killed 1 dog and 1 bike…which left his majority Sv at 6+. So my ignore cover grav decided to obliterate the 2 remaining bikers in the middle of the board instead.
My assault phase:…I didn’t feel like charging his star.
His turn 2: He scored both maelstrom points as he had a 5 man scout squad out of LoS on Obj. 1 and his star on Obj. 2. He rolled the same thing for maelstrom for this turn. His movement saw his star turn around and position itself to multi charge my army in the ruin. One battle leader split off to kill my 5 rangers.
His psychic phase he managed to get veil of time and endurance, and even smited my lvl 1 librarian with the axe. So now his star had rerollable saves and 4+ FnP and Eternal Warrior
His shooting phase:…lol
His assault phase he charged his 1 battle leader with 2 wolves into my 5 rangers who killed the 2 wolves in overwatch and even did a wound with the plasma. Twin linked overwatch is no joke. He then killed 1 with Hammer of Wrath and my sarg. with the 4++ invuln tanked a couple wounds before dying to the last one leaving 3 rangers left who did nothing. Then the important charge, He multicharged my knight and my vanguard who had my lvl 2 librarian attached (the one with shifting worldscape). He killed one vangaurd in hammer of wrath and Tigerius killed 2 more. Then the knight swung his D-sword and ate a dog…a very very dead dog. Then initiative 1 saw his power axe librarian kill my vangaurd sarg. then at initiative 1 all the powerfists absolutely obliterated my knight. My knight got 3 stomps as he died, and managed to roll 1 6 which killed a battle leader, his lvl 2 librarian with the axe, a dog and a black knight. He then exploded and scattered 8″…right on top of my entire army in the ruin and missing the star completely.
We didn’t know how to handle the blast which literally covered everyone I had left on that side of the board because it was on 3 different levels of a ruin, we decided to follow the ITC FAQ and pick a level that it hit and decided it was my opponent got to choose which level. He obviously chose the one with my ignore cover grav and my warlord. 2 destroyers and my hunters eye librarian were obliterated from the D. My warlord managed to pass his cover saves. The lvl 2 librarian then Hit and ran with my one vangaurd left and ran towards his emperors will.
My turn 2: I didn’t score any maelstrom as his star was still on obj 2 and I wasn’t anywhere near obj 1. I then rolled the same 3 maelstrom 1,2,3. And decided to go for objective 2 and linebreaker. My movement saw my librarian splitting off and running back into the ruin with everyone else while the 1 vangaurd ran onto his emperors will and hit the dirt praying nobody would see him. Everyone else just shuffled a little
My psychic phase I threw everything I had at shifting worldscape and periled doing a wound to my librarian and losing dice from the pool but we both had used all of them anyways. I moved the ruin back onto my emperors will and within 24″ of my other grav squad who were now out of range of everything, hopefully I’d live and be able to teleport them over to help next round.
My shooting was completely ineffectual as I only had his star in range of 1 grav destroyer and he had rerollable saves and 4+ FnP. My dunecrawler fired at his 1 scout in the middle of the board who went to ground and made all his cover saves. I had chosen the litanies of the electromancer as my canticle hoping it would kill the battle leader with my rangers. It managed to do 3 wounds and he took 1 leaving him with 1 left. My feeble punches at him failed to wound and he killed 2 more rangers with his fist but my last one passed leadership keeping him tied up and unable to assault my lvl 2 librarian next turn.
His turn 3: he scored both maelstrom again and chose to kill a unit and have linebreaker as his next maelstrom. His movement just saw his star get within 1″ of my screening ruststalkers in the ruin. His lvl 1 Librarian peeled off to get my one vangaurd on his emperors will.
His psychic phase saw him actually only get 2 successes with veil of time on a 3+ and I was able to deny it. His endurance was on the one librarian who had peeled off so he didn’t get that either. He smited with the last of his dice and did a wound to my warlord
His shooting phase he failed to kill the one vanguard with the bike bolters after I went to ground. The other bike bolters killed 1 ruststalker.
He then charged into my ruststalkers and Tigerius insta-deathed everyone but the sargent before I got to swing. My sarge did 2 rends and a wound. Which his battle leader just tanked then my sarg was obliterated. He then consolidated everyone into the ruin with me so I couldn’t run away by teleporting. His 1 librarian charged and ate my 1 vangaurd. His one battle leader ate my 1 ranger
My turn 3: I couldn’t get linebreaker after the vangaurd died and I wasn’t on obj 2 anymore so I didn’t get any maelstrom. I ended up choosing to kill 3 units for my maelstrom as I was now down 4-0 and needed to catch up. I chose to reroll 1’s and 2’s in shooting as my canticle then didn’t really do any moving.
My psychic phase I threw all 8 dice at shifting worldscape and only got 2 4+ resulting in a failed cast, my opponent even rolled to deny and didn’t get a single 6.
This left me high and dry as I had been planning on bringing the ruin with everyone including his guys over towards my full unit of grav. He only had 2 battle leaders, tiggy, and a couple bikes left at this point so a full unit of grav would’ve actually done a number on him, especially since this was the 1 turn he didn’t have rerollable saves or Fnp. Instead my warlord fired his eradication ray which was tanked by a stormshield, but then the macrostubber actually did 3 wounds and the battle leader rolled 2 1’s and died. My 1 grav fired next and did 2 wounds to tiggy and killed the last black knight. 2 of my destroyers from coteaz’ squad were within range of his one battle leader that had killed my rangers and they destroyed him. The dunecrawler finally managed to kill his last remaining scout in the middle of the board giving me kill 3 units.
His turn 4: He scored both his maelstrom bringing him up 6-3 then multi assaulted my lvl 2 librarian and my warlord. Tigerius killed the destroyer, the battle leader killed my librarian, and the power sword librarian actually did a wound to my warlord who only did a single wound back. I lost combat by 3 and failed ld and got overrun.
At this point He had a bike on both emperors will and I had a squad of destroyers and a dunecrawler who were both out of range to get to either objective in the next several turns and although the dunecrawler could get lucky and shoot off the librarian off his emperors will (it didn’t it missed) there was no way I could kill his battle leader, tiggy, and 2 remaining bikes (apothacary and chaplain) who were all out of range of my grav so we called it as a space wolf victory
All in all it was a fantastic match with 2 very competitive armies. If I had gone first it would’ve been a totally different game, I think I even could have pulled off the win if my knight hadn’t destroyed my grav squad, or if I hadn’t failed the last shifting worldscape. But the game went a different way and both of us are excited for Storm of Silence tomorrow at Gamer’s Haven in Spokane Washington where we get to see the true power of the new space marines.
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