Battle Rep - Iron Warriors Vs. Black Templars

[Enderel]

Hi all, had my first game using my IW army last night, thought I'd post the report, not sure if this is the right place..

Iron Warriors Vs Black Templars

1500 pts.

Terrain - (6x4 battlefield) Mission Recon

Forested hill - Cathedral ruins - Forest - Hill
- Ruins - Hill
Forested hill - Building ruins - Forest - Hill

Armies

Black Templars (from memory!)

Knight Marshall
Emperors Champion (vow allowed no ccover saves, but did give them 6+ invulnerable!) (with Crusader squad 2 in rhino at start)
Master Chaplin plus 5 terminator retinue (Assault Cannon, Cyclon launcher, serg with power sword)

Crusader squad 1 - 9 - Las / Plas, 1 neopyhtes
Crusader squad 2 - 9 - Heavy bolter, Melta, 3 neopyhtes Rhino

Sword Brethern - 5 TL Las Razorback (embarked at start of game)

Dreadnought - Assault cannon
Predator - TL Las plus 2 x heavy bolter.

Iron Warriors

Warsmith - Plas, PW, Servo, daemon armour, aura and strength

1 x 6 CSM Las Plas Tank Hunters
1 x 6 CSM Heavy bolter Infiltrate
1 x 6 CSM Two meltaguns Infiltrate

Basilisk (indirect)
Pred TL Las 2 x las DP, PP
Dreadnought - TL Las

3 x oblits (2 in one FOC slot, 1 in other slot.)
1 x 5 chosen plus rhino (accompanied by Warsmith embarked at start of game)

1x5 raptor

Templars won the dice roll for first turn and set up.

Razorback Predator Dreadnought
Rhino
Forested hill - Cathedral ruins - Forest - Hill
Crusader Squad
Knights Marshall

- Ruins - Hill


Forested hill - Building ruins - Forest - Hill
Heavy bolter CSM Las Plas CSM's Dreadnought
Basilisk Predator Rhino
Raptors Melta CSM's

Templars forced Iron Warriors to go first turn.

Turn 1 - Iron Warriors

Dread advances around the forest towards the ruins close to the Las Plas CSM's, gets line of sight on the razorback behind the forested hill. Rhino ducks into complete cover so to avoid any hits (plan was to rush towards the end of the game!)

Predator pulls out from behind buildin ruins towards forest gains line of sight on Templars Rhino sticking out from around the forest.

Dread opens fire on the razorback, hits and penetrates! Damage come up as a three, immobilised and shaken! Sword brethern have to bail out!

Pred fires on the rhino hitting and penetrating the side armour, but it's downgraded to glancing. Damage roll comes up with a six! The Rhino explodes and the inexperienced neophytes (3!) die in the explosion, whilst the power armour of the normal templars protects most of them (1 dead!). They advance forward after taking the wounds…

Las Plas CSM fire at the Razorback, hit, pentrate but it's downgraded to glancing and I get a shaken..

Basilisk fires indirectly at Crusader squad one but they are within minimum range, so I forfeit the chance to fire this turn.

An excellent turn all in all, both fast moving CC units, which would have helped out the Templars player greatly are now walking over the battlefield after the destruction of their transports.

Turn 1 - Black Templars

Pred moves out from behind cover, both crusader squads move forward with squad one advancing through the large wooded hill, squad two go up behind the ruins.

The Dreadnought moves along the lines towards the ruined cathedral as the Templars player notices a huge gap in his lines appearing.

Predator starts the firing for Templars firing at Dreadnought, scores a hit but fails to penetrate. Due to movement and prior damage this is all the Templars fire for this turn.

Turn 2 - Iron Warriors.

Oblit one turns up and DS's into cathedral ruins. The Dreadnought has a moment and decides to charge forward 9" instead of standing and shooting as I'd have like it to!

Pred advances along side the ruins to draw line of sight on the Templars pred.

Chaos Pred fires at Templars and even with TL Las misses completely! Basilisk opens fire and misses completely as well due to firing indirectly… TH Las / Plas fire at Pred and miss as well!

Heavy bolter squad fire at Crusaders one and inflict three wounds, all of which are saved..

Oblit one fires at side armour of pred with plasma and fails to penetrate.. gahhh

Ok that turn really didn't go that well… No damage and a Dreadnought who decided to do his own thing..

Turn 2 - Templars

Terminators don't turn up..

Crusader squad 2 moves forward into behind the ruins. Dreanought moves over to take on the oblit in the ruins. Sword Brethern seeing the abonination that is the oblit start moving away from their destroyed transport and try to cover the open ground between the forested hill and the cathedral ruins.

Predator and Razorback open fire on the rampaging Dreadnought and inflict two penetrating hits, both roll ones on the damage table though! This seems to stun the Dread as he now behaves himself for the rest of the game and does what I ask of him!

Crusader Squad one opens fire on the heavy bolter CSM's in front of them. A las and plas shot wound, but both make their cover saves..

Dreadnough opens fire on the Oblit. Scores two rending hits and two normal ones! All wound in the end and I need to make two 5+ invulnerables and 2 2+ saves. I fail one invulernable leaving him injured but still alive in the enemy deployment zone...

Turn 3 - Iron Warriors

Oblit 2 (two of them) turn up and try to DS into the Templars lines, they scatter badly and end up in the middle of the battlefield! Near enough dead centre…

Pred moves forward to gain better line of sight on the Templars pred. Dread does nothing as can't move or fire! Rhino comes around the corner of the forest and advances towards the ruins.

Oblit 1 moves further into the ruins closer to the side armour of the pred. Raptors move over open ground towards building ruins and CSM Las Plas.

The TH las / plas CSM's open up on the pred managing to immobilise it, the oblit in the cathedral ruins now opens up at close range with a melta gun and finishes off the crippled tank. The pred kills off the immobilised Razorback.

The basilisk opens fire on the Crusader Squad on the far side of the battlefield and lands a shot directly on top of them! Three are killed including the emperors champion.. The extra move means the squad make it into cover of the ruins in front of them.

Oblits two manage to stun the Dreadnought with lascannon fire.

Turn 3 - Templars

Terminators turn up and deep strike right into middle of Iron warriors lines, pred and ruined building on left, on right Dreadnought, CSM with melta's, in front two oblits! Sword brethern move across the battlefield towards the oblit ..

Crusader squad 1 advances down flank out of wooded hills towards heavy bolter CSM's they are accompanied by Knight Marshall. They open fire on the Raptors causing two wounds which are not saved!

Crusader squad 2 open fire on the rhino and manage to penetrate it with a meltagun shot.. It blows up spectacually killing a member of the melta squad who was to close. The chosen bail out, but the lord takes a wound as he flees the destroyed vehicle.

The terminators and the chaplin decide to open fire on the obliterators as they have the best chance of getting into the templars deployment zone at the time. Assault cannons causes two wounds, the cyclon another, storm bolters from the termies and chaplin cause another three! I save the cyclon but fail one of the invul's for the Ass cannon. The storm bolters patter off harmlessly as all the wounds are saved.. Pheww just one wound from that multitude of fire.. Really lucky on that one.

Turn 4 - Iron Warriors

Oblits move forward a little (doh slow and purposeful!) in the centre, raptors move quickly towards the crusader squad which is now in the open. Dreadnought moves around the chaplin to get a good charge in.

The pred advances towards the centre hoping to advance more towards the enemy lines in the last two turns.

The heavy bolter squad fires at the Crusader squad in front of them leaving them with just four troopers overall, they are now a non scoring unit.. The knights marshall is still a problem though, as he can rip them apart if he get's to close..

With the terminators in their lines the Iron Warriors concentrate all fire on them. The Las / Plas CSM's kill off one, the pred kills another, the CSM meltas kill two! The dread kills another with lascannons leaving the Chaplin all on his own!

The oblits 2 open fire on the Templars dread and stun it, but oblit 1 takes careful aim and repays it's wound by hitting penetrating and blowing it away with a six!

Basilisk fires on the remains of Crusader squad 2 and kill the heavy bolter and melta marines leaving just the sergeant...

The IW dread charges the Chaplin, at this point we realise it's only a matter of time before the Chaplin buys it as he's only S4! He didn't have any melta or krak grenades meaning he wasn't able to penetrate the armour… All the dreads attacks hit, all wound! All are then saved by the 5+ invulnerable! Wow!!

The Raptors attack the Crusader squad in the open but nothing happens and combat is drawn.


Turn 4 - Templars

Not really much left for the Templars player to do, he advances the Knight marshall forward hoping to be in charge range of the heavy bolter CSM's.

The Crusader squad champion moves forward to charge the CSM meltaguns..

The raptors kill one for no return, but the Templars hold, the raptors hit and run out of combat.

The chaplin dies finally to the dread, whilst the serg from squad 2 charges, hits three times, fails to wound and is then killed by the CSM he charged!

Turn 5 - Iron Warriors

Only some sword brethern (5), three Crusader Squad 1 and the knights marshall are left. The multitude of fire from obliterators, lascannons bolters and heavy bolters reduce the once proud army to the Knight Marshall who is facing off against nearly the whole Iron Warrior army.. The dread has the last say firing it's twin linked Lascannon and insta killing him with the final shot of the game.

Marine casualties - all….

Iron Warriors casualties - 2 raptors, 1 CSM, wounds on Oblit 1 and 1 of Oblit 2, lord wounded.

Raptors and all the oblits in the enemy lines..

Well what can I say, first outing for the Iron warriors and a comprehensive victory absolutely crushing their foes.

I had some major good luck at times (rhino blowing up first turn, razorback being immobilised first turn!) and my opponent had really bad luck at times (rolling three ones to wound on a couple of occasions and only needing two's!) I managed all my saves that I needed and then some!

Oblits are dead hard they soaked up two assaults cannons, numerous storm bolters and loads of other fire for only two wounds on different units…

[Kriegschmidt]

Great battle report. You've given me some ideas for my Iron Warriors! I play a very static army, which has often suffered in games where I have to seize objectives. But I think that exploiting the obliterators' deep strike and having a dedicated fast attack unit is worthwhile (obivously wokred for you).

I've been trying very hard to manage with just marines, and in games that involve just blowing stuff up I am fine... but I think I may have to accept that those obliterators on my shelf are needed, along with a more mobile unit.

[Farris]

Good battle report yes, would like to see some pics though
very nice tactics used by the IW
also gave me some ideas, even though I play regular Black legion^^



~Farris

[Malchek]

Nice report Rob - Enderel - looks like you've got the hang of your new IW's already! Although I'm interested to see what you think about deepstriking the oblits now you've tried it.........? Do you think its still a good idea...?

Also one quick question - why did you shoot plasma from the Oblit in turn 2 at the side of the Predator rather than a multi-melta or lascannon.........?

Well done on your victory! IW's are rude aren't they! I bet Kev doesn't like them much - I feel rather sorry for him after that battle....

Cheers

Rob

[Kriegschmidt]

Nice report Rob - Enderel - looks like you've got the hang of your new IW's already! Although I'm interested to see what you think about deepstriking the oblits now you've tried it.........? Do you think its still a good idea...?

Definitely a good idea in right circumstances. I recently played a game against Eldar where I had to assassinate their Farseer. I deep-struck two obliterators next to him, opened fire with 4 twin-linked instant-killing shots and fried his ass.

Also one quick question - why did you shoot plasma from the Oblit in turn 2 at the side of the Predator rather than a multi-melta or lascannon.........?

Because you get two twin-linked shots at S7, which will do better against AV11 than 1 S8 or S9 shot. Especially if it's not twin-linked.

[Enderel]

Hi all,

Thanks for the comments. Apologies for the formatting on the set ups.. Some of them really don't make sense when the tab's have been removed.. doh.

@Kriegschmidt

I was tempted to go for a more static fire base army, but I wanted to try out as many of the gorgeous models I'd bought as possible! From hindsight it worked really really well.

Yeap that's precisely the reason I used them. It was over 6" so no extra penetration dice and a re roll is really great!

@Farris

Next time I'll try and post photo's!

@Mal

DS really worked wonders to be honest. It was gamma level so no escalation and everything was on board but it allowed the Oblits to reach parts they would have had no chance to reach otherwise.

I felt extremely guilty at the end of the game, he was a supreme sportsman through out even despite his horrendous loses and my luck. I didn't think I fielded a nasty cheesey list by any means either? Not like the one I've got lined up for you....

I've figured that rhino's blow up quickly so might go for more raptors next time... Keep the warsmith as a sweeper unit, attack with a larger squad of raptors..

Oh I love having saving throws!

[Malchek]

LOL yeah I must try that sometime - an army with saving throws would be a nice novelty for me!

I'm sure my army will be far more cheesy that Kev's list too!!!!!!!! Brin on the battle of the deepstriking oblits and Hardened veteran squads!!!!!!!!!! (I can't wait to get my Demolisher cannon going on those oblits! )

Rob

[Kriegschmidt]

Yeah I've just finished making a flying lord who can respond to threats and assault pretty well.

My theory is, either no vehicles or as many as possible so I normally go for the latter. I own two landraiders, three preds, a basilisk, a vindicator, two rhinos and a hellblade and it's nice to just keep on deploying vehicles and watch jaws drop....

[Kahadras]

Interesting report. The BT player seems to have been screwed in the first turn. Losing both transports pretty much ment he had to slog across the table against an army which specialises in shooting.

Kahadras

[Lolly Pop Chewer]

Personelly I think IW should be banned. If someone showd up with them at my club I would throw them out head first.

[Kriegschmidt]

Personelly I think IW should be banned. If someone showd up with them at my club I would throw them out head first.

Can you expand on why you don't like Iron Warriors/IW players?

[Malchek]

Crystal Meth that's just nuts mate - they're a tough army to beat but hey what's wrong with a challenge - I can think of a lot more better reasons to attack someone than if they have an IW army (like if they have 3 indestructable Falcons with Harlequins! lol) No I'm only joking - get a life mate

[Enderel]

Personelly I think IW should be banned. If someone showd up with them at my club I would throw them out head first.

Interesting view point.. Highly immature but interesting none the less.

The only real difference between this list and an undivided list was the use of a basilisk. Even if you look at the composition of a marine list it draws very close parrallel's..

Warsmith - Commander with appropriate wargear.

1 x 6 CSM Las Plas Tank Hunters - tactical marines
1 x 6 CSM Heavy bolter Infiltrate - tactical marines
1 x 6 CSM Two meltaguns Infiltrate -tactical marines

Pred TL Las 2 x las DP, PP - Umm pred!
Dreadnought - TL Las - Umm dread!

1 x 5 chosen plus rhino - commander retinue (vets) plus rhino!

1x5 raptor - Assault marines with jump packs.

Granted there are things like the oblits and bassy that I used, that a marine player wouldn't have access to. They had terminators instead with assault cannons! One on one there are no differences in stats for the majority of troops deployed!

Granted a tourney level army would have major cheese all over it but I did not use 4 heavy support or 9 oblits..

Shouldn't raise to the trolling... but some people :-)

[kenny3760]

Nice report and a nice balanced list. BT really lost it when both transports went early on.

Crystal Meth, whats with you. IW's ain't so tough, I'm going at 50/50 against them with my dark eldar, and nobody calls the DE a cheesy powergaming list. However they do suit going against IW. It's all about how you play them.
Throw them out head first, pah!!

[Enderel]

Yeap very much, the transports blowing up created a situation which was very difficult for the Templars player.

I wouldn't have fancied my chances against his CC troops as the Sword Brethern and Emperors champion would have munched part of my forces until I could get the warsmith across.

We'll play again soon I expect and either reverse the armies, or make some changes. He is already painting up two speeders to get around some of the mobility issues he experienced.

One of the best things about that sort of result is the breakdown afterwards and discussing the tactics, luck and possible changes! If anything it benefitted him more than me..

[The Song of Spears]

Yeah, i am guilty of using the gunline IW. And oddly enough it hasn't been working out so well. People around here are getting real good at dealing with IW and oblits :P I was too going to try chosen, but give them flight instead of using raptors. I love the idea of highly mobile assault troops

P.S.
Great to see some other IW players here, thanks for showing and posting the bat rep of a nice list, i hope to hear more! Cheers!

[Kahadras]

I've always wanted to see IW as more of an attacking force. Plenty of troops supported by good artillery going in to smash the opponants defences. I personaly think the IW gunline army is a bit stale now and as The Song of Spears has already pointed out, people have worked out ways to counter it.

I much prefer to see assault based IW armies as they really catch people out. One guy I used to know went for a pure mechanised assault army with infiltrating units, Rhinos carrying CSM and a Land raider carrying Terminators. He'd take a bit of pie plate support as well but didn't rely on 6 man laz/plas squads/Obliterator spam.

Kahadras

[The Song of Spears]

After playing against numerous other chaos cults, i think oblits are needed (how many is entirely up to you, i take 6 personally) But after a few games with the 6 man las/plas i dropped the idea, it was worthless, and about as fun to play as rolling dice in a empty white room for hours is.

My current list (thanks to the help of others here) has two infiltrating squads. I dont have any CC models yet, but if i can test out these two squads as CC setups, i might just invest in some actual assault chaos marines.

i dunno about the dread though. I like the idea of mechanized IW, with maybe 2 preds a vindi and a land raider. but i dont have a LR...

[Nightrunner]

A friend of mine plays a smattering of tanks, but focussed around 4 squads of 8 tank-hunting IW on foot. They are, to be quite honest, an extremely effective force, with Oblits deepstriking (takes three units of one, btw) and harassing from the rear whilst a Basilisk offers fire support. It is very effective, and he is now considering adding termies! Just a thought on another option?

@Enderel, I know you like Raptors, but have you considered bikes - a little more survivable with quite a hefty punch still behind them?

Nightrunner

[Enderel]

Hey all,

The army I have (bought from a nice guy called Tom on eBay) has a lovely smattering of different units within it. It has CC CSM's, raptors and large CSM squads so it's easy to go troop heavy and rely on the heavies to throw shots over their heads as you advance. I love that sort of combined firepower!

I've got an undivided army that I will start painting into IW colours which includes bikes, more raptors, chosen, possessed and a big DP!

Might consider bikes at a later point, with teleport homer and chosen terminators coming in!

A big thing I've been noticing recently is that mobility is becoming a necessity rather than a luxury. If you don't have something that can move 12" you'll struggle in some missions.

Anyway I'm now off to design a mech eldar list and start some painting (yes Mal I do paint occassionally!), glad most people enjoyed the battle rep.