Battle Report: Jawaballs Horde Templars vs Fritz IG

Ok, Fritz and I decided to throw something new on the table last night. Sadly I forgot my camera so I got no pics or vid, but he made a vid which I will link here. We both decided to get out of our comfort zones a bit and try something new. Sometimes the best way to find ways to improve at what you are doing or having a problem with is to approach the situation from a new direction. In our case, I wanted to play a LOT of marines, and he wanted to get away from his Eldar for a bit. So here we go!

Jawaballs: 2k points of Black Templars
5 squads of 20 initiates and 20 neophytes with Fist and Meltagun (100 templars)
Helbrecht
Emperors Champion
Command Squad with Combi melta, Power Sword and Fighting Co. banner. (109 total)

Fritz: 2k points of Imperial Guard
60+ infantry
Creed
2 Chimeras
3 Russ with Plasmas, las and battle cannon
2 Basilisks
AP 3 Flame tank.
lascannon team
heavy bolter team
2 storm trooper squads with hot shot etc.
4 ogryns

You can see this matchup instantly throws something that neither of us are used to against each other. First of all, he is not used to having such fire power! He was dropping 5 pie plates a turn on me, plus 6 plasma cannons and a lot of las plas and melta love. I couldnt help but give him plenty to shoot at... it was tough to spread out 109 marines AND try to get cover saves.

Mission: Bases
Deployment: 12" table edge

I won first turn and took it. I was relying on getting a move then a run into cover, then on his shooting phase taking casualties and getting my "Angry Templar" move, then on my next turn hopefully being in assault. He planned on just sitting back and slaughtering me!

Turn 1:
As I planned, I charged forth 109 marines. I managed to move then run them all into cover. I had my base behind a terrain piece that blocked Los, and was within the minimal range of his Basilisks so that he could not indirect fire me thank god. I sent Helbrecht and 41 marines at his base, while the rest of my boys went after his armor.

On his turn, he focus fired all of his guns at a single squad... one of the two I sent to take down his armor, but only managed to kill 13 out of 20 of the guys in it thanks to cover saves. That squad would retreat and hold my base as best they could. He also tried to take down Helbrechts command squad, but only killed a lowly scout, and granted him the Rightous Zeal move all but guaranteeing him to get into assault next turn.

Turn 2:
I moved up my boys again, but would fall short on assaulting and allow him another round of shooting at me. I did manage to get close enough for some shots however, but did nothing. The best I could do was get my boys right up to an inch away from his to stop him from dropping templates on them. (Fritz tactic)

He took full advantage of his shooting, knowing full well that I would have dozens of angry templars in his ranks next turn if he failed to stop me. Sadly, the other of my two squads sent to take down his armor would be obliterated. My left flank was falling. Only 7 marines were left to defend. But this took a lot of his shots to do. He tried to take down helbrechts squad and only angered him. He did kill the banner and combi melta sgt, but the rest of the guys would get into assault.

Turn 3:
Time to die IG!
I assaulted just about every thing. One squad exploded a Russ with a melta shot and killed a load of guard which was my only shooting. Then I swept in for the kill. One squad assaulted the Lascannon team and 2 russ tanks, Helbrecht assaulted a squad of 10 guard, his command squad survivors assaulted another 10 men, the emperors champion assaulted another 10 men, and one last squad assaulted his ogryns. Luckily, only the ogrins folded on my charge and the rest of my boys were left in assault until Fritz's turn. Oh, and my base defenders fired some desperate shots at an advancing stormtrooper squad with pistols, killed 2 and they fell back! How lucky.

On Fritz's turn he would move up a chimera and hell hound towards my base and pop smoke. Those boys were not out of it yet. The only other squad he could shoot at was my templars that slaughtered his ogryns, and they caught fury... but 6 survived thanks to my spreading them like a pro. He piled in more guard onto one of my squads, and turned the tide in the center of the table by his tanks. But all of his other boys would fold, save for the ones fighting the Emperor's Champ. They would hold him off all game thanks to my uncanny ability to roll 1's. You know it is sad when the Emps champ is only killing 1 guardsman a turn.

At this point, the game was turning in my favor, despite heavy losses.

Turn 4:
Hellbrecht and his lone command squad survivor moved on Fritz's command chimera. My survivors of the ogryn fighters moved on his base and spread out if cover. They were my last troops in range to take the now undefended base. My base defenders shot a melta gun at his charging Chimera but he made a smoke save. Next turn they would have to deal with an AP3 flamer, storm trooper squad and chimera full of vets... gulp. I popped the chimera with Helbrecht's melta gun, then Hellbrecht and his marine charged Creed and his command. My last intact squad moved on his heavy bolters. In the assault, the Emperors Champ would kill a guardsman, while Hellbrecht and my boy charged... they killed a few guard. My other squad that was in assault with his tank defenders would be over whelmed though.

On his turn, he moved his hell hound into marine killing range on my base, and fried a few. He also moved his Chimera 12" into contesting range. I had 4 boys left holding my base. At this point we were running out of time but tried to hurry. Hellbrecht finished off Creed and the command squad and the Champ or should I say Chump killed another 2 guard... Jesus! My guys were holding his base and would have to weather more fire power, but at this point were getting cover saves against most of it.

Turn 5:
This would be the last turn due to having to go to the club. I was down to 12 guys. Hellbrecht, the Chumpian, 4 guys holding his base, 2 assaulting his heavy bolters and 4 defending mine. My base defenders moved to get a back armor shot at his chimera. My 2 boys slaughtered his heavy bolter team, and my boys on his base would go to ground. My boys hit his chimera... it was an auto glance... the worst I could do was glance if I was unlucky enough to roll snake eyes. But I am JAWABALLS! I will not be denied my glory. I had to pop that chimera, then assault the boys inside, then get back to my base and hold it. So I rolled to hit and rolled a 3. Close. Time to pen... the result? Snake eyes. What the Hell! How do I do it? Damn 1's. So any way, I would need a 6 to destroy it, which I rolled... vehicle destroyed, boys bail out, I assault and kill them all. My base defenders did their job. I killed his troops trying to take it, at least he would not be able to claim it.

On his turn, his hell hound would finish off my base defenders with the flamer. But my few guys on his base would suffer a LOT of punishment! Cannon after cannon roared at them, hitting, missing, making them scream for their mommies... 3 more would fall. It all came down to the last man. He had to make 2 cover saves. I rolled them seperately. 1st die, a 5. One more save to make. All of the emperor's glory was riding on one single marine's shoulders. a 4+ would grant victory. A simple coin toss would mean the game. All I had left at this point was 5 marines out of 109. It mattered not. The die rolled... and a 4 was the result. Victory Jawaballs!

So my 109 templars charged into shear brutality. Throughout the course of the game, 10 Basilisk shots would rain down, 11 battle cannon shots and countless Plasma cannon, Las cannon and las gun shots would pepper my boys. But it would not be enough! 109 Templars charged, 5 returned. But with the enemies banner over their proud shoulders. As for the Sergeant leading the squad fighting my Emperor's Champion, he was promoted and actually inducted into the Black Templars. They made 4 leadership tests and held off the champion in assault. He gets the hero of the game award.

There you go! A narrow victory for my Templar Horde vs Fritz's Guard. If I could survive that Basilisk/Battle Cannon hell, I think they may stand a chance against the more modern 6 chimera/3 valkrye lists. Most guys have given up their pie plates for more direct tank killing punch.

Think my templars are onto something? Think they can be a competitive tournament list? They really only work at 2k points. 1750 would reduce their numbers too thin, as guard lose much less then Templars do for 250 points. So I need the 2000 points to get them on the table. But it has been my experience that most tournament lists are heavy on tank killing and lack torrent of fire, so maybe they can do well. We shall see!

Up next... Jawaballs revamps his Blood Angels, with the help of Fritz and Black Matt... Justin, where is my shipment????j

Video:

22 comments:

suneokun said...

Nice write-up, that really worked... Fritz should have pan-handled you with that amount of firepower ... plus a hellhound? Where's the Banewolf?

Very funny game and great writing style - very funny. I'm surprised the old emporers champion survived that many turns... even at a 4+ to hit, 5+ to wound I find that space marines go down to numbers... and the Sergeants got 3 attacks.

The Black Templars need to biggest chapter ... since their tactics look so stupid.

That said, how much IG armour/squads survived??

Jawaballs said...

Bane wolf, hell hound, not sure what it was, but it fired a AP3 flame template at range. Whichever one that is. The champ was fine with his 2+ save. 1v10 and the guard having no PW I will bet on the Champion every time. I just rolled a LOT of 1s. But yes, numbers took down my other squads that assaulted lowly guardsmen pretty well.

He had the hell hound, 2 basilisk, 2 russ, about 20 infantry and 10 storm troopers left. Once he loads his video I will link it up.

Col. Corbane said...

So, you're saying you killed of a companies worth of marines, that's outstanding.

Turbo said...

fritz jawaballs AND black matt combining brainpower on one list? yikes. look forward to seeing it in a battle report!

Jawaballs said...

Black Matt is too tainted with Chaos to be of use to me tacticly, but his skills with building models is unquestioned. He will be helping me assemble models once they arrive so I can get them painted in time for Mechanicon. I hope I get them done in time!

Squirrel_Fish said...

Great write-up. I especially appreciated the "I am JAWABALLS!" line. Made me think of a Templar curb-stomping a guardsmen.

How do you think you would have fared against a more mobile force as opposed to an almost static IG line?

Squirrel_Fish

Gonewild40k said...

At 5:56
it appears that three of the four SM are within unit coherency. The fourth (behind the armor) looks to be more than 2" from his three squad mates. Is that an optical illusion as a result of the camera?
I've been poring over the rule book over the last week in preparation for my first game, and I wanted to make sure I didn't miss something.

Jawaballs said...

he was probably a little out, we dont sweat the small stuff. For the sake of the model not falling all over the place, he was slid over to make him stand. I could have spent 10 minutes making it 'legal' or 2 second just putting him where he is.

Jawaballs said...

Squirrell, this army is one of my answers to the new mech IG list. I think it will do well. They ditched their pieplates for melta guns and las cannons. You dont see many hard hitting battle cannons and no basilisks at all. I think these templars would give a mech IG list frights!

Gonewild40k said...

The 5th edition rule set is starting to sink in- I thought I had missed something when I noticed the disparity.

In regards to time, did you notice a difference in the amount of time it required to finish a turn with this army as opposed to your BA force? How much of that would you attribute to the sheer number of models, as opposed to the table-top?

Ad Astra said...

All fairness it was just a test game, and it was the worst mission for a templar horde army. Plus, my IG army is soooo 3rd edition- static gunline which is the worst case. Now we have mobile guard armies with tasty kill point transports and 30+ melta guns. Jawaballs- imagine spreading out your horde across the table and taking the time to advance- think of a blanket of templars- valks can't end their movement on models and can't tank shock since they ain't no tank. Even with their silly abuse of rules like hovering over their own models, valks can't pull this off. We alos need to test this army vs. mech marines- bring on the melta spam!

Alex said...

So, as a new player to 40k and one interested in Blood Angels, I found this list interesting (even if it isn't BA).

My question is, do you think it is worth trying to come up with a list similar to this with Blood Angels (a heavy number of footsloggers) now or would it be more worthwhile to wait until March, when the new Codex comes out?

As I understand, they're also coming out with new kits for the marines and terminators (and maybe new specific BA terminators -- not that I see terminators in many lists?), so I haven't started collecting but I am gathering thoughts and strategies. Thanks!

Jawaballs said...

You wont see many Blood Angels terminators. They can only be taken in squads max 5 and have inferior storm shields. A foot slogging Blood Angels army? Not yet. But foot slogging in general may be the answer to the new IG lists. The paper to the Imperial Guards rock if you will. I have considered a list full of just BA tacitcal squads. Might be interesting... about 70 space marines for 1750 points. Could be interesting... Definitely needs to be considered once I hear some leaks of the new dex.

Jawaballs said...

2kish points:

Dante
Corbulo

10 man tactical x6
Fist
Melta
Multimelta

Death Company furioso x2

Death Company models= 6

Swap out a DC Furioso with a jacked Baal Pred. They are about the same cost.

So take two preds, march them up surrounded by your infantry...

very interesting...

Alex said...

Maybe I am overly optimistic, but I have to think that the new Codex will provide good options for taking on a heavy mechanized/tank list and still remain within the BA theme.

Unknown said...

The results of the first round Throne of Skulls tournament in the UK. With 160 players and (according to the bloc) over 40 Valkyries there (so presumably plenty of guard armies there) the first three places went to Space Marines, Orks, Space Marines.

I wasn't there so I don't know anything about the armies but with a lot of IG players obviously in attendance and no IG in the top three it is yet another big tournament where IG armies fail to live up to the hype.

Jawaballs said...

Eamon, interesting! I would love to see stats though. More importantly, I would love to see lists from the top 3 placers. I suspect they are a step ahead of the curve that Fritz and I are currently rounding. Hell, get me the 1st place finishers list and that will become my new BA army.

Drew K said...

when ever i see a (newer) player playing BA i ask why do you play BA most of the time they say because jawaballs does and hes good a laugh to myself.The receant jump of Ba players is just amazing i think someone should rep an army like sisters and make them good so a bunch of noobs jump on them insteed of BA or ultranoobs or even orks.

Jawaballs said...

Well the stuff I write here and the mech list I currently play still work against most armies and are still hugely competitive. A noob can do a lot worse then molding his army and tactics on what I have posted up here.

Alex said...

For my experience, it has nothing to do with Jawaballs, though I very much appreciate his insight. I became interested in BA and THEN arrived at his site. Had I picked another army, I would likely not have come here, though the bat reps and strats are pretty useful for me.

I think the jump in BA is far more likely due to Space Hulk, as well as the fact that they are going to be the new Marine army.

For me, it was a love of the Space Hulk models combined with the fact that I really like painting red that piqued my interest in both 40k and BA, specifically. After reading the fluff, etc. I was sucked in. I realize I am a bandwagon jumper, but it will be a first for me as I tend to prefer less frequently played armies.

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Jawaballs said...

Fricken spammers.

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