Battle Report - Trenchant Criticism - Scythiak Usurpation vs. Pilgrims of Rust

I decided to blow off schoolwork for a bit and headed down to Hobbytown for a rare Saturday excursion.  It was great seeing and chatting with some folks I rarely get to hang out with, and got a game in with Aaron of Skies of Flies Ground of Rust .

We had been vaguely starting a small league, and pulled out our 1000pt forces to throw down.

The store had recently bought a whole passel of terrain from some other gamer, and it was very nice stuff.  A whole bunch of resin trenches, emplacements, and ruins. 

Giddy with the prospect of playing on nice new (to us) terrain, we grabbed a bunch and made a nice dense table for our guard armies to slog through.

We used a lot of it, but by no means all.  Now that the local store has all this cool new stuff, I'll be running into a while when I'll probably be too busy to come down much.  Oh well.

We rolled up Seize Ground, and set up the objectives in what seemed to us to be logical places - the two taller ruins and the middle of the two trench systems.  Spearhead deployment, but we allowed some spillover to allow for getting into more of the trenches.  1000pts/side.





I took:
Primaris Psyker
Khonan (Marbo)
Platoon - HQ PF/2 flamers, 2 squads grenade launchers, Mortar squad, Lascannon squad
Platoon - HQ PW/2 flamers, 2 squads meltaguns
Rough Rider squad, sgt meltabombs
Spawn Rider (sentinel) Missile Launcher
Spawn Rider (sentinel) Missile Launcher
Leman Russ Demolisher/Heavy Flamer hull

Aaron took:
Company command squad, banner/medic/master of ordnance
Platoon - command squad, blob of four squads, misc weapons + pw sgts and commissar, heavy bolter, autocannon and mortar squads
Penal Legion squad (knife fighters)
Armored Sentinel with plasma cannon
Leman Russ, lascannon

The Pilgrims of Rust take up positions in one trench system while penal legion unit infiltrates onto another objective (blue chips - the red chip was just marking the center of the table).  Scythiak set up in the opposite corner and prepped for a right hook towards the penal legion.

Techno-barbarians defend the position, sending cultists and cavalry forward.  Early shooting sends the lascannons fleeing off the table before they can even warm up their powercells.

The Pilgrims spread the blob squad throughout the trenches, heavy weapons scattered around, company command in the central emplacement.

Scythiak move out, lumbering and running along the flank.

Forces arrayed against each other.  My mortars were incredibly accurate this game, usually getting a HIT on the initial shot and another HIT for one of the other two shots. 

Yeah.  Come assault this.

View across no-man's land.

With the mass of Pilgrims too tightly-packed, Khonan sneaks up to a position near the heavy bolters and tosses his demo charge, taking out two bases.  The third sticks around and takes a wound off of Khonan in return.

Cultists moving up through ruins.

Pilgrims hold steady, under the watchful eyes of overseers and champions blessed by the gods.

Sentinel charges into penal legion to try to tie them up, but Rending attacks take it down.  In the scuffle the missile launcher misfires and the explosion takes out two troopers.

Overview.  The Primaris was tagging along with the rough riders, helping to shroud them from enemy fire while they advanced.

It didn't come up in play, but I had a question about the Primaris Psyker's Nightshroud power.  He casts it at the beginning of movement and it affects him and his unit.  But as an IC, he can leave the unit during movement, and even potentially join another.  So if he leaves, are both he and the unit he was with at the start of movement both still affected?  If he joins another unit, are two units effectively covered, as if you try to shoot the new unit, you're trying to shoot at him too?  Personally I would think if you separate you're both still covered as you were under the effect when cast, but if the psyker joins another unit he voids his own protection and doesn't pass it on.

The Master of Ordnance kept pounding my tank, with surprising accuracy but little effect other than to keep it shaken or stunned most of the game.

Scythiak forces move up to assault the Pilgrim outpost.

On the other flank, a squad goes over the top heading for another objective.

Khonan slaps a meltabomb on the enemy Russ, disabling its battlecannon.  The Pilgrims try to shoot him, but are apparently afraid that their heavy bolter might somehow hurt the tank and miss him wildly.

Assaults strike home, taking out most of the penal legion except for one, who Stubbornly hangs on for another round.

The Pilgrim blob moves out to recapture the lost objective, while their command squad moves around the Russ to engage Khonan.  He kills a couple before going down, but the officer's power sword finishes him off.

Scythiak make it to the objective on their left.

Surviving rough riders charge into the blob, kill a few but are easily pulled down themselves.  Mortars and lasguns also start to take their toll on the blob.

Blob wipes out defending cultist squad and takes the objective - but can they hold it?

Other Pilgrim remnants move towards evicting the Scythiak on the other side.

Flamers light up the Pilgrims before cultists charge in.

Most of the Pilgrims go down, but a few champions hang on a bit longer.

But can't hold on forever.  Cultists re-secure the objective.

In the late game, the Scythiak trenches see a lot of fire.  One squad runs off, but the command squad though battered holds on to the objective.  Tanks square off against each other but their duel is inconclusive.

After a grueling seven turns, the remaining Pilgrim forces find their position untenable and start to pull back.  Victory for the Scythiak...this time!

I also got a few free bits (spawn tentacle and mangled cultist) from another player, who got them as part of a massive lot he's re-selling, the major part of which is a nice massive Night Lords army (which can be seen HERE ).  With the rumors of updated Chaos stuff on the horizon, I'm sure that those parts will see some use!

Edit: Aaron's got his version of the battle up HERE, with some different shots - check it out!