Renegades vs Mechanicum 2000: Outskirt Raid

The Outskirts of Ferrograde aren't heavily defended and are an ideal place to raid. The forces of the Mechanicum are attacking one such area and the defenders of Ferrograde, the Renegades of the Hereteks, must defend their territory against the onslaught. This is a game of Contact lost, can the power of man and daemon take on the power of the machines?

The Armies

With this army I try out a few things that I have wanted to do in the past with the renegades and not quite had the chance to, but also bringing back a few old friends to the party.

Forces of Chaos: 2000 points

Renegages and Heretics: Combined arms Detachment

Command Squad – 120 (warlord)

Heretek, lascannon, melta gun, refractor field

Chimera – 70

Militia training, autocannon, heavy flamer

Platoon Command – 100

20 men, Demagogue, command vox, chaos sigil, krack grenades, 2x flamer, melta bomb

Infantry squad – 70

20 men, chaos sigil, krack grenades

Infantry squad – 30

20 mutants – 60

pistol and close combat weapon (cause fear)

5 Disciples – 70

lascannon, plasma gun

5 Disciples – 70

lascannon, plasma gun

3 Sentinels - 60

heavy flamers

Medusa Battery – 180

2x breacher shells, militia training

Demolisher – 160

heavy bolter

Defiler – 220

power scourge

Chaos Daemons: Combined arms Detachment

Herald of Nurgle – 95

level 1 (smite, warp speed), locus of fecundity

20 plaguebearers – 180

3 Nurglings - 45

Blood Slaughterer - 130

Soul Grinder – 170

daemon of nurgle, torrent

Soul Grinder – 170

daemon of nurgle, torrent

And my opponent brought a Mechanicum army made up of both Knights, cult mechanicus, and Skitarii

Forces of the Mechanicum: 2000 points

Knights: Baronial Court Formation

Princeps Valerius

Castigator Knight (warlord: Land strider)

Mars Triumphant

Knight Errant

Ferrum Invicta

Knight Paladin

Cult Mechanicus: Allied detachment

Archmagos Dominus

3 Breacher Servitors

Skitarii: Maniple detachment

10 Skitarii Vanguard

2x plasma Caliver

10 skitarii Rangers

2x Transuranic Arquebus

5 Sicarian Ruststalkers

The Mission

Rolling on the mealstrom table we get the mission Contact lost, in this mission we must take objectives in order to generate tactical objectives. Setting up we place the terrain around so it looks like we are fighting on the out skirts of a forge city. The mechanicum win the roll to pick deployment zone and then win the roll to deploy first.

Deploying, all 3 knights deploy on the left flank, with the Castigator in the centre of them. The vanguard deploy in the middle with the Dominus, to the right of them the rust stalkers and breacher servitors deploy. On the far right the rangers deploy in a ruin, ready to hold it to the last.

My deployment has the mutants, and the infantry squads on the right, backed up by the sentinels. In the middle I deploy the little squad holding and objective in a ruin, and the plaguebearers squad who are protecting the medusa battery. On the left the demolisher, defiler and single soul grinder deploy ready to take the fight to the knights. Behind them the chimera deploys protecting the commander. I have 2 disciples squads deploy on the left in ruins so they can target knights. I keep the other soul grinder and blood slaughterer get ready to deep strike in.

I infiltrate the nurglings onto an objective, then his skitarii scout forwards.

Night fight: No

Steal the Initiative: Fail

The Battle

Mechanicum turn 1

To begin with the skitarii gain +3 BS and -2 WS as he isn't expecting combat this round, and the Cult units gain Stealth.

His force as one moves forwards, the knights thundering down the left flank while the skitarii diligently move forwards. The rangers hold position in the ruins however, keeping their favourable position.

Shooting starts with the rangers targeting the sentinels, but they only take 1 hull point from them, so the servitors shoot them as well, but again only manage a single hull point off a different sentinel. Vanguard shooting targets infantry but he only manages to bring down a single infantry man. The knight shooting is much more eventful, the Errant shoots at the disciples, but it scatters a little, killing 4 plaguebearers and 2 of the disciples. The Paladins battle cannon barks out at the defiler, taking 2 hull points off it and 1 off the soul grinder. Princeps Valerius tries to take it out but only takes 1 more hull point off it, leaving it on 1 hull point but manages to get a stunned result past the demonic possession. At the end of the phase the disciples run for it and leg it off the table, giving first blood the the Mechanicum.

Score: Objective 2, first blood (2 – 0)

Renegades turn 1

On the right flank the infantry runs forward eager to get to grips with the mechanicum, screaming with the desire to shed blood. In the middle the plaguebearers move up slowly, as they do, and on the left the soul grinder moves towards the knights, becked up by the demolisher who sneaks up to see the knights.

As a precaution more than anything else, the Herald of Nurgle casts Warp speed on himself, hopefully as a deterrent to any knight that may wish to attack.

Finally I get to see what breacher shells do! The medusas target the Errant, both hit, but one gets stopped by the Ion shield. I roll to penetrate and get an explode result, taking 3 hull points off the knight. Trying to capitalise on this the demolisher targets it as well, managing to take off another hull point. On the right infantry fire takes down two of the rangers and even wounds a servitor.

Assault phase and the mutants are quite close to the rust stalkers so declare the charge, and make it! Because of the -2 Ws the ruststalkers only kill 3 mutants and lose one of their own, I roll to see what their leadership is (as they have random) and get a 6... so needing a 4 or less to hold, they hold! And carry on fighting. End of the turn the defiler refuses to die and gains a hull point back.

Score: objective 1 (2 – 1)

Mechanicum turn 2

Programming from the Dominus gives the Mechanicum units re-rolls of 1's, and the skitarii gain +1 BS.

Disgusted with the daemon engines, the knights move in to destroy them, while the vanguard move into the middle of the battle field. The breacher servitors move into the ruin to get a better line of sight.

Taking aim at who they can, the rangers target the infantry on the hill as the guys closer to them are blocked by the combat. Shooting takes down 3 infantry as well as the chaos sigil, thanks to my bad placement. Vanguard shooting targets the plaguebearers and kills 7 of them as well as wounding the Herald. Seeing the Medusas as a real threat, the Errant targets it with krak missiles as well as melta cannon, and manages to blow apart a Medusa as well as 2 of the crew. The Paladin targets the soul grinder and strips a hull point off both the soul grinder and defiler, while one shot scatters and kills 2 Disciples. As the defiler is only on one hull point the Castigator shoots at it, and manages to take off its last hull point, wrecking it. End of the phase and the medusa crew run for it, not normally in the fire fights, they just up and run off the table.

Assault phase sees the Paladin charges the Soul Grinder but fails to hit it, striking back the soul grinder manages to strip 4 hull points off the Paladin, then the knights stomps do nothing. On the other side of the table the rust stalkers fail their fear test, 5 of the mutants die but they kill a rust stalker back in return, but once again the Mutants show great resolve and stay in the fight.

Score: Objective 2, Assail the foe (4 – 1)

Renegades turn 2

Both of my reserves come in, the blood slaughterer and soul grinder both rip into the real world behind the knights. The plaguebearers move up towards the Errant intent on charging it and reducing it to rust. With 2 knights almost upon it, the demolisher moves back trying to protect the chimera. Both of the infantry squads move up towards the rust stalkers wanting to help out the mutants.

Again the Herald casts Warp speed to give it an edge in combat.

The infantry furthest to the right shoot at the rangers and manage to bring down 2 with their autoguns, despite their low BS. The sentinels run to get closer to flame next turn.

Combat, the plaguebearers charge the errant, swinging first the Herald attacks but fails to do anything his attacks failing to hit their mark. The knight attacks back killing 2 of the plaguebearers before the others attack back and manage to get the final 2 hull points off, the knight stumbles back as it turns to rust and explodes on the vanguard killing 7 of them. On the right the infantry who didn't shoot charge in to help the mutants, a few of them die but then all of the Rust stalkers get killed under the weight of the Unwashed masses. This turn however the knight isn't so lazy and kills the soul grinder with a single blow.

Score: Ascendency (1), Blood and guts, objective 4, objective 5 (4 – 5)

Mechanicum turn 3

Once more they upgrade themselves for this turn, giving the Skitarii +2 ws and -1 bs, and the mechanicum can re-roll 1's in close combat.

Unsure what to do, the Castigator moves to face both the soul grinder and the plaguebearers, not sure which is the bigger threat. The vanguard move to take on the plaguebearers to try and take them down.

With the soul grinder appearing next to them the servitors target it and manage to get a single glance on it, its daemonic form being too hard to damage even with haywire shots. The dominus finally gets his hands dirty and kills 2 plaguebearers on his own, while the vanguard take down a further 4 more, leaving only the herald and 2 friends. Shots from the rangers kill 6 renegades but they don't seem to notice. The paladin targets the demolisher with its battle cannon but the shots fail to do anything to the front armour, the castigator shoots at the soul grinder but also does nothing.

Assault and the Dominus and vanguard charge into the daemons, the Dominus issues a challenge which the Herald accepts. The combat is dull as neither combatant can do anything to the other, but the vanguard kill a single plaugebearer. I roll a double 6 and the unit is banished back to the warp. Castigator charges into the soul grinder, its hammer of wrath attack immobilises the walker then wrecks it before it can attack. Paladin smashes into the demolisher and wrecks it.

Score: objective 3, assassinate (6 – 5)

Renegades turn 3

The infantry split, half go towards the servitors while the others go after the rangers, supported by the sentinels. With little left the chimera backs up a little and gets ready to take on the knight. Its rage unmanageable the blood slaughterer goes straight for the Castigator as is khornes will.

Lasgun shots from the infantry hiding in the ruin take a wound off the Dominus, the chimera and guys inside it fails to do anything as well.

The remnants of the mutants charge into the rangers in the ruin, both manage to kill 1 of the other ending with a drawn combat. Howling with lust for blood the blood slaughterer charges into the Castigator, both strike at the same time, the castigator fails to do anything, but the slaughterer gets enough explodes results to take it out in a single round of combat! However it falls onto the daemon engine exploding and taking it out, the knight warlords final act of revenge.

Score: Take no prisoners, slay the warlord (my opponent score blood feud) (7 – 7)

Mechanicum turn 4

With combat already begun, the skitarii get +3 ws (-2 BS) and the mechanicum units gain stubborn.

Nothing is in its way, the paladin moves towards the chimera, ready to remove the villain leading this horde of chaos. Grabbing objective 4, the Dominus holds his ground with the vanguard.

With no real target the serviors shoot into the infantry but only kill 1 or 2. Vanguard shooting takes out a couple of the little infantry squad holding the objective. Battle cannon fire takes out the chimera (it must have taken a hull point earlier in the game).

The knight paladin charges the command squad and stomps them all with ease. Finally the mutants come to their senses and run after losing 4 to the rangers and run for it.

Score: slay the warlord, objective 6, king slayer (2) (11 – 7)

Renegades turn 4

Finally the sentinels get into range with their flamers backed up by the infantry squad.

Flamers go over the rangers and killing all but 2, which leaves the infantry to mop up.

The small infantry charge the vanguard but fail the charge.

(11 – 7)

Mechanicum turn 5

The nugrlings get gunned down the knight paladin, the servitors target the sentinels but mainly miss.

Score: Overwhelming fire-power, objective 5 (13 - 7)

Renegades turn 5

My infantry grab objective 3 and the small infantry charge into the vanguard but all die. The infantry charge into the servitors and lose 1 of their number and run getting cut down.

Score: Objective 3

We roll to see if the game continues... It ends. The mechanicum gain line breaker.

Mechanicum: 14 – Renegades: 8

Post-Battle

This game was great fun, and a lot closer than my last vs knights. I was finally able to use the alternative shells for the Medusa and it worked really well before getting taken out, i'm probably going to try them out again for taking out vehicles but they will likely do nothing to infantry. Possibly take a second demolisher in order to get some more ap 2 shots? Not too sure yet.

I was very happy with the Blood slaughterer this turn, running in and wrecking face. It was a shame the knight fell on him and took him out, but khorne cares not and all that. In this game I made a better deployment choice than vs the other knights, as my infantry actually took part in a fight that they could take part in, instead of just getting stomped on by a knight. The daemon engines didn't do so well but it was because I spread the forces too fin. It would have been great to have both soul grinders on the table at once but there just wasn't enough room. A real problem with this army is that you just run out of room for deployment and it actually a problem which I need to work on and figure out how to fix.

Anyway that will do for now, I hope you guys are enjoying the reports.