At GamesHub we have started our own small Crusade group as a change of pace from regular matched play and the ongoing league. I played some Crusade games against my friend Gary last year to get the basic hang of things although I felt that I made some mistakes so I have reset my list for this.
I built my new list around the basic Patrol detachment and made sure to include at least option per basic battlefield role. So no flyers or super heavies. The Redemptor Dreadnought basically replaced the heavy support. One thing that irked me a little from a fluff perspective is that I cannot start with a chapter master so I have to have chapter master, Arthurus, as a "captain" and work up. He'll always be my chapter master regardless though. Not sure why that was needed but hey ho.
From my starting Requisition Points (RP) I bought another 10 supply so that I could add a Redemptor Dreadnought, my chosen relic (always the Burning Blade) and made my Bladeguard Veterans into veterans of the indomitus crusade. This left me with 1 RP which I decided to keep for now.
My crusade force is thus the following:
+ HQ +
Primaris Captain Arthurus [5 PL] The Burning Blade, Warlord
Heavy bolt pistol, Master-crafted power sword and Relic shield: Master-crafted power sword, Relic Shield
Primaris Lieutenant Agrippa [4 PL] Bolt pistol, Master-crafted auto bolt rifle
+ Troops +
Assault Intercessor Squad #1 [10 PL]
9x Assault Intercessor: 9x Astartes Chainsword, 9x Frag & Krak grenades, 9x Heavy Bolt Pistol
Assault Intercessor Sgt: Astartes Chainsword, Plasma pistol
Intercessor Squad #1 [10 PL] Bolt rifle
9x Intercessor: 9x Bolt pistol, 9x Frag & Krak grenades
Intercessor Sergeant: Plasma pistol
Intercessor Squad #2 [10 PL] Bolt rifle
9x Intercessor: 9x Bolt pistol, 9x Frag & Krak grenades
Intercessor Sergeant: Plasma pistol
+ Elites +
Bladeguard Veteran Squad [5 PL]
2x Bladeguard Veteran: 2x Frag & Krak grenades, 2x Heavy Bolt Pistol, 2x Master-crafted power sword, 2x Storm Shield
Bladeguard Veteran Sergeant: Heavy Bolt Pistol
Indomitus Crusade Veterans (Centurius Service Studs).
Redemptor Dreadnought #1 [10 PL] 2x Fragstorm Grenade Launchers, Heavy flamer, Icarus Rocket Pod, Macro Plasma Incinerator
+ Fast Attack +
Invader ATV Squad [4 PL]
Invader ATV: Multi-melta
++ Total: [58 PL] ++
Adam turned up with his Ork horde and quite frankly I was shocked. For the same Power Level he outnumbered me something silly. I really did not expect him to have so much when my force was rather limited. Without sounding defeatist, I could tell this was not going to be a good match for me. I had expected a warboss, weirdboy, three lots of boyz, and probably some lootas and a deff dread. Instead, he had a warboss, warboss on a giant squig, a huge block of boys, a unit of stormboyz, some snaggaboyz, some squig riders and three megaknobs.
He got a lot more for his supply than I did. It got worse when we rolled for the mission and up came Ambush. I have played this mission before last year under match play against a friend's daemon army. In both instances I was the attacker and for a ambush style mission, it's really not in the favour of the attacking player. I did however become the attacker and I went for the option of splitting my force so that I got to go first. The plan was to try and do as much damage as I could before he could retaliate. It did not go well.
I had forgotten that Orks were now Toughness 5 and that made a big difference. It took one Intercessor squad with the Rapid Fire stratagem to bring down the stormboyz. I could have gone for the big blob of boyz but I didn't think I could drop enough of them where the stormboyz could be in my face straight away. Come Adam's first turn and he was in my face straight away. The boyz surged up and into my intercessors. They held out for three turns before they were dropped and Lieutenant Agrippa lasted an extra turn due to some good armour saves but he went down under those choppers.
The ATV didn't last long and was crumped by the deff dread although I did knock a minimum number wounds off with the multimelta. Everything else spent the game in close combat. The assault intercessors did well but they were overwhelmed by sheer number of dice. My army was geared to a lot of shooting and I wasn't able to bring it to bear enough. Even when the second half of my army came in, they got a round of shooting in doing minimal damage before they were stomped by the meganobz and the snaggaboyz.
The hero of the game was the redemptor dreadnought. He came in, blasted the deff dread before tearing it apart in combat. Adam charged his warboss on squig into it, doing nothing and then being crushed just as easily. Unfortunately the dreadnought did go down afterwards but I felt he had done his job.
In the end I was tabled turn 5. I didn't even bother count the victory points as it was blatantly in the hands of my opponent. We shook hands, congrats in order and we discussed the game. It was fun if frustrating. I had really expected to do better than I did, although if the mission had been different, the outcome might have been more in my favour. With Ambush, the Orks started far too close to me and I really needed to gun them down and doing it with only half an army for three turns was tough. Good game though and hopefully in the future, I'll have better luck against Adam's greenskins.
I was lucky that only two units ended up with battle scars. Poor Lieutenant Agrippa lost a leg and the Bladeguard are suffering fatigue. I choose not to use any RP to heal those injuries as neither really impact them at this time. In the future I may change my mind. As for Marked For Greatness, that really had to go on the redemptor dreadnought. He did best of all in the game and deserved those extra XP. I am left with 2 RP and I decided to keep them. I won't add more supply and another unit or two just yet. I want to accumulate a couple more points before I do so, if I can.
I'm hoping to get another Crusade game soon. At the time of writing this I was supposed to be playing against Adam's brother and either his Necrons or Chaos Knights Crusade list, but we've had to postpone. I have a free evening coming up and I'm going to try again then.
