40K Engine War

I took my knights down to the club and got involved in a big game of 40K. We had about 8 people all with 2000 points each so it was an opportunity to bring out the big models that don't normally get much on table time.

My knights were by no means the biggest models on the table. Infantry were just a blur of little red specks on the thermal scanners as they ran backwards and forwards trying not to be squashed out of hand in the engine war.

Things I learned:

• Shadowswords are as brutal as I remember against enemy vehicles. Thomas used one and it killed perfectly healthy knights in one shot twice. One knight took 30+ wounds.
• Tau Tiger sharks are nasty as well, this one had railguns and the ability to kill super heavies easily.
• The Eldar knights are no better or even slightly worse than the Imperial knights. My Errant knights had some good duels with them even with their traditional Eldar "immunity from the rules". Try being immune to damage 6 chain swords.
• Playing a big epic game is better in 8th edition than previous editions. The game often only lasts 3-4 turns which is all you ever get through in big battles. If you have people playing horde armies though, it does really bog the game down. Its quite possible to go and buy lunch while the Imperial guard players are doing their moving or shooting phase.
• Wargamers are no good at statistics. They don't realise that averages means 50% chance of doing worse than that. They are then prone to disappointment (50%) of the time. Older wargamers may have been used to calculating probabilities for previous sets of the rules, have their assumptions wrong and then fall into the trap of applying insufficient force to achieve the outcome they wanted.

Pictures

Here are my Knights and the Mechanicus troops in support I imagine the Mechanicus are sort of like the Pit crew for the knights.












In what would be a common occurrence here is one of the pesky Eldar flyers.

In a tale of heroism the Imperial command squad get into a fight with some guardians along the wall. Both sides fought each other to a standstill, the company commander killed the last guardians and then a Warlock. Nominate him for a medal.









In the distance the Erant sights two enemy war engines.This is after having killed the Tau Tigershark.







No that isnt a small coffee table its the Tigershark back on the table via recycling reinforcements. The model is big enough that one of my knights could surf along on top of it.







Turn Two the Knight Errant goes to work on the Eldar war engine. After softening the target up with the melta cannon, a bit chain sword work took it down to 5 wounds.

The Eldar knight gets caught bringing a fan to a chainsword fight.Some supporting Imperial Guard managed to do a wound as well. Kent's knight tried to kick the Imperial knight in the kneecaps but to no avail. You can just see the guard cowering in the crater.






The Eldar Flyer demonstrates the classic Monty Python known as the "I fart in your general direction".

My knights plan on bullying the Ghostkeil suit. The scout sentinel sneaks round behind to trip up the Tau Suit and allow the knights to close in for some sword work.







Here is me failing a charge with my Second knight and then the Tau suit made all three 4++ saves to keep living

On the flank Tom's planes are busy cleansing the jungle of life. 40 shot per turn Gatling cannons were brutal on PBIs. They did a very passable impression of the Hunter Killers from Terminator.
The large black building at the back is a Shadowsword. It happily murdered its way through a target rich environment being easily capable of killing a tank a turn.

Then Tom drops in his infantry with the precision of a synchronised swimming team. They started exchanging fire with the Skitarii. Several Skitarii belonging to Graia forgeworld decided not to die so this ability proved quite useful.

Kent's knight lurches away. it still has its head on not that you can tell.

Hey, look over there its a Superheavy tank. Zat, ZOP, POW splat. 31 wounds later the knight went from untouched to dead in one go.

Here is the other knight trying to kill the Ghostkeil again. It made 2 4++ saves for 5 in a row. I would have charged the Tau commander who had obligingly come down to the ground floor, but the Guard got over keen and blocked my charge lane.

The White knight has deployed his back up software and is acting as if he had full wounds. He raced forward blew up a fire prism and then failed to make the charge into the wraithknight. That resulted in his demise.

The Black knight has re-spawned, killed the Eldar knight and then promptly got shot again by the shadowsword. What does he have "Curse of massive laser attraction?"