Big news, I have had a game of Warhammer 40,000 – Black Templars vs Astra Militarum at 2,000 points! Rejoice! I played Simon with his Black Templars at Boards & Swords, here in Derby. Quick note, if you are reading on a desktop computer, you now have a Table of Contents, I hope, available on the upper right portion of each article.

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Astra Militarum List – 2,000 Pts

I am taking a single Spearhead Detachment with a total of five Leman Russ and various pieces of artillery. With the Leman Russ Tanks and Tank Commanders being in a Spearhead they will get Objective Secured. This privilege costs for 3CP, but with Primary Objectives being such a big part of the game at the moment, I am hoping this will pay off.

I cannot beat the enemy on Objectives via numbers, I can only beat them by removing their Troops to ensure my Leman Russ can take Objectives. Therefore I must remember to;

KILL THE ENEMY TROOP CHOICES

Note: I wrote that line in a draft of this article, weeks and weeks before this game. This game has been 7 months in the making, or should I say waiting? So, “KILL THE ENEMY TROOP CHOICES”. -remember those words – they will haunt me for a long time…

Spearhead Detachment -3CP

Tank Ace: -1CP

Command Points: 12 – 3 – 1 = 8 CP

Regimental Doctrine: Gunnery Experts, Jury-rigged Repairs

• A Warlord Demolisher Tank Commander with 2x Plasma Cannons, Hunter-Killer Missile, Lascannon, Kurov’s Aquila and no Warlord Trait – ObSec – HQ
• A Demolisher Tank Commander with 2x Plasma Cannons, Hunter-Killer Missile, Lascannon – ObSec – HQ
• 3x Leman Russ Battle Tanks with 3x Heavy Bolters and Hunter-Killer Missiles – ObSec – Heavy Support
• 1x Leman Russ Demolisher with a Hull Heavy Bolter and Hunter-Killer Missile – ObSec – Heavy Support
• 2x Basilisk with Hunter-Killer Missiles – Heavy Support
• 2x Manticore with Hunter-Killer Missiles and Full Payload Tank Ace – Heavy Support
• 1x Platoon Commander – Elite
• 1x Veteran Squad with 3x Plasma Guns – Elite
• 1x Hades Breaching Drill – Dedicated Transport

This list consists of 11 Hunter Killer Missiles, 55 points of them in total! That is a whole Infantry Squad worth of HKMs.

Astra Militarum Secondaries

• Domination
• Grind Them Down
• Mission Specific

Stratagems of Note

As a way of revision, here are the Stratagems I should be using with this force.

• Crush ‘Em
• Experienced Eye
• Aerial Spotter
• Relentless
• Direct Onslaught
• Hail of Fire
• Inspired Tactics

Black Templars List – 2,000 points

• 1x Chaplin, Master of Sanctity
• 1x Chief Apothocary
• 1x Primaris Captain
• 2x Lascannon Predators
• 2x Gatling Redemptor Dreadnoughts
• 2x Infiltrator Squads
• 2x Eliminator Squads
• 1x Eradicator Squad
• 1x Assault Hellblaster Squad
• 1x Boltstorm Agressor Squad

Black Templars Secondaries

• Thin Their Ranks
• Bring It Down
• Deploy Scramblers

Battlelines, Black Templars vs Astra Militarum – The Mission

I took the secondary on this mission which was from the second turn;

• Score 3 VP for holding the objective in the enemy Deployment Zone at the end of my turn
• Score 2 VP for each objective held in No Man’s Land at the end of my turn

Deployment

Turn 1

The Black Templars took the first turn I think I got off pretty lightly with just a Leman Russ or two taking a handful of wounds.

I raced two Leman Russ forwards in my turn to attempt to control objectives come my turn two. My shooting was awful! This is a theme that would remain throughout the game. One Tank Commander did wipe out a Redemptor Dreadnought in one volley using overcharged Plasma Cannons, the re-roll 1s Tank Order and Hail of Fire on the Demolisher Cannon for 12 shots total.

The rest however was terrible. From the rest of my shooting, which was 5 other Leman Russ, two Basilisks and 2 Manticores – I killed one Eliminator and 2 Infiltrators. This was bad, really bad. With the Infiltrators still in place, I could not take the objectives from the Black Templars. This was the one thing I wanted and needed to do – but my shooting was just terrible.

2D6 shots on a Manticore, with a re-roll for Gunnery Experts, nice! Roll a 1 and a 2, re-roll the 1, into a 1. This happened again and again.

Turn 2

The Black Templars now had their weapons in range of my Leman Russ tanks that moved up onto objectives. One melted away from Eradicator fire and the other was taken down to a wound from the Hellblasters and Predators.

Unfortunately, my inability to remove the enemy Infiltrators meant I did not control the objective I was on and the other No Man’s Land objective I was blasted off. My shooting went the same as before, a Tank Commander Demolisher wiped out the Aggressors in one go using Hail of Fire. The other Tank Commander did the same to the Eradicators. The Tank Commanders were doing their job versus the tough stuff, but it was hard going even with D6 wounds worth of damage, rolling a 1 is really not great vs a 2 wound Marine.

And all my other shooting, from my artillery, amounted to nothing. By not removing the enemy Infiltrators, again, it meant my Leman Russ could not take or hold objectives at all.

This was a tough game, simply because the dice were being so awful for me!

My Veterans and Drill arrived this turn and my bad luck continued. The Veterans killed a single Eliminator and the Drill failed its charge, even when using a CP re-roll.

Turn 3

The Black Templars pressed forward this turn and increased their grip on the centre of the battlefield. The Drill died to Lascannon fire along with all but two Veterans. The most forward Leman Russ was not shot but was charged by a multitude of enemies. It died and exploded dealing out D3 Mortal Wounds to a multitude of enemy units.

Thankfully the Redemptor that gunned down my Veterans failed its charge.

Said Redemptor was then wiped out via a Hail of Fire Demolisher Tank Commander. This was good, but once again, all my artillery was awful. The Infiltrators were still alive.

Turn 4 & 5

I was into damage limitation now as my Leman Russ were now dropping easily and my (useless) artillery was being threatened. It was clear the dice had failed me completely, we both knew it.

Black Templars vs Astra Militarum Summary

Apologies that this was not very detailed, but it was a truly awful game for me. Simon played well and scored when and where he needed to score. I could not kill a Troop choice at all. My whole load of artillery was killing 2 or 4 Primaris Marines per turn, which was just not good enough. This was not because Marines are OP, I was just very unlucky.

I wanted to write a debrief for using a Spearhead and using so many HKMs. But I cannot, the dice were so skewed that I can’t draw any meaningful conclusions from this game. The HKMs dealt zero wounds, which by the law of averages is pretty difficult to do.

Final Score Sheet

Final Score

Black Templars – 88
Astra Militarum – 38

Black Templars Victory