The second match of the Vigilus campaign for me was against Richard’s Raven Guard. Evidently, another communications SNAFU has led the Imperium to attack itself again. The mission was Data Recovery; there are nine locations on the map on which data canisters can randomly land. Whoever controls the most canisters wins.
I ran basically the same list as against Adam’s Tyranids the previous week. I lost, but not by much, and it was a fun game.
The game turned on action right at the end, with two markers on one place. Whoever controlled those would win. I had a bit of difficulty getting my army onto the board – only a third by power level starts on the board – but ended up having a rush at the last minute that meant I was in contention for the central location that would decide the battle. In the end, my Crusaders were picked off so they couldn’t even attempt an Act of Faith, and we wrapped up the game when it became obvious that what I had left to contest the data canisters in the middle was about to become so much wreckage.
The deployment rules also showed up how slow much of my army is. That would be a recurring problem.
My Onager Dunecrawlers did excellent work again, picking things off from the safety of the back row – once they got on the board. I used an eradication beamer on one and the neutron laser/cognis heavy stubber combo on the other. The Icarus array could have been useful as there were a few flyers around, but I didn’t particularly feel I was doing badly because I hadn’t taken it. I’d taken it as a sort of default last time in case there were any flyers; I probably won’t make that choice again going forward, as the Icarus array doesn’t and didn’t go as well against ground-based targets.
The Kastelans came on in round three, and so it took them a while to get into combat. Not having a Cybernetica Datasmith wasn’t a huge problem again. Mostly, though, I think I want/need more of them to put in the squad.
The unusual deployment rules meant I went for Mars again as the Forge World. Ideally, I think I’d go for Lucius or Stygies VIII. Either one would allow the Kastelans to quickly get into combat or sit on an objective. I was leaning towards Lucius, to be able to teleport to pretty much anywhere, but Stygies VIII’s dogma, Shroud Protocols, puts your opponent at a -1 to hit from more than 12″ away. As I found out when I tried to shoot the Raven Guard, that’s very useful. As I understand the rules for Clandestine Infiltration, it gives you a free 9″ move after both armies are set up; it’s not as good as Legio Teleportarium, but it’s still pretty useful.
On the Imperial Guard side, I only had one tank, and it was pretty soon a smoking hulk, as last time. Except in very small games, taking one just doesn’t work. The Valkyrie took a huge amount of shots before it finally went, and the Taurox hung in right to the end.
I ran ten Crusaders, again in the Taurox, with the intention of using the Valkyrie to drop in their supporting Ministorum Priest and Astropath. Long story short: it didn’t work. I needed the Crusaders in one part of the board, and the Valkyrie and its cargo of Scions in another. I’m better off putting eight Crusaders and their supporting cast in a Taurox than trying to bring the Astropath and Priest in on a different vehicle.
All in all, though, a good game that remained competitive until the last round.