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Welcome to a Battle Report 2 months in the making! My name is Mahu and I will be your tour guide through a wonderful match between Ultramarines and Black Templars.

My friend Capt. K had an old friend come into town and they played a game of 40k. I was jobless at the time and offered my services to record their match for posterity. Needless to say, many months of job searching and a move (plus an ample amount of laziness) delayed this report from getting in front of your eyes. Anyways, here we go!

Player A is the Black Templars:



As you can see the army revolved around the capitalization of the Black Templars ability to field multiple Land Raider Crusaders. Grimuldus in a Command Squad is a particular beast. Especially when he pops his Icon.

Player B is the Ultramarines:



Speed was the goal of this list with a big bike squad and Assault Marines. But as you can see the Smurfs brought a Land Raider of their own. Scouts and Terminators rounded out the other two extremes in the list.

Here is the Initial Deployment:





As you can see the Ultramarines where playing it safe whilst the Templars where out for a good bloody fight.

Turn One:



Black Templars won the first turn, taking the fight to the enemy. The Land Speeder was stunned and the Predator manages to kill two Marines at long range. The Land Raider carrying Grimuldus moved forward towards the center and blew smoke. While the Speeder is stunned.



The Ultramarines continued to play couscous with the bikes Turboboasting towards the center of their lines. The Lascannon Tactical squad did manage to take down a Predator in an otherwise lackluster shooting phase.

Turn Two:



One Droppod Squad arrives. A Predator takes out the Land Speeder. The second Crusader moves forward and blows smoke. Grimuldus and his Squad disembarks and kills a Bike in the shooting phase. The Land Raider kills another.The Drop Pod Squad kills the Crusader.



The Ultramarines scramble after the heavy losses inflicted on them. The Attack Bike immobilizes Grimulduses Land Raider. A Tactical Squad moves up and kills two command squad marines, but that unfortunately forces Grimuldus to Righteous Zeal right into them! All the scouts desperately charge the Drop Pod squad but takes more casualties then they can inflict. Grimuldus kills 4 Marines like they never existed.

Turn 3:



More glory is to be had when the second Drop Pod shows up. The gap is being closed by the Black Templars and they are slowly moving to end the battle quickly. The Predator turns and kills a Terminator. The Drop Podders put a wound on the unattached chaplain. A Land Raider kills two assault marines. Grimuldus finishes the tacticals and consolidates into the bikes. The Scout combat starts to fail with one squad making a “tactical retreat”.



Things are going from bad to worse. The Terminators intact revenge and destroy the Predator. The bikes and the tactical manae to kill 2 Black Templars but loose three for their trouble. The scout combat ends with things not looking good for the Terminators.



Turn 4:



The Black Templars closed the gap as both Crusaders wipe out the remains of the assault marines. The Templars charge into a huge close combat only loosing one marine while killing everyone except the Chaplian. The first Drop podders charge and kill all the Terminatos except the characters.



Unfortunately, not much was left to do for the Ultramarines except die. The Chaplian falls to the huge combat. And the Librarian fails to stop a powerfist being planted firmly in his face. At the end of the turn, the game is called and ends.

The end result:

er...where is the EC?

The EC was attached to the squad in the second landraider. He and the squad never needed to see a combat and pretty much watched...LOL.

Capt K

Great Report! Although I am shocked about the results.

Based on the army list the UM seemed to have a pretty balanced force... Looking at the initial deployment though it really looks like the UM player split his forces, which isn't good where as the BT army went straight up the middle with DP support. It also looks like the UM assault squad never made it into combat - not a good thing

I would love to see a rematch in this game...

Thanks for such a great report. I am sure this was a fun game to play.

Must...make...real....tables! Grey sackcloth=sin!

Nice bat rep, for a newer player (me) its nice to get to see illustrations and a blow by blow sequence, another way to help me see how other armies work, thanks again!

Freaka

Great Report! Although I am shocked about the results.

Based on the army list the UM seemed to have a pretty balanced force... Looking at the initial deployment though it really looks like the UM player split his forces, which isn't good where as the BT army went straight up the middle with DP support. It also looks like the UM assault squad never made it into combat - not a good thing

I would love to see a rematch in this game...

Thanks for such a great report. I am sure this was a fun game to play.

The Ultramarine player hasn't played in quite a while. There are things he could have done to field a more competitive force, but he used the models he had. On the other hand Capt. K has taken his Black Templars to many a tournament and has a pretty good win record and understands how his army works. From a list perspective, the Black Templars may not seem that powerful, but I assure you, Land Raider Crusader heavy lists are hard to crack. In a recent RTT, his Command Squad took on Abbandon, a Greater Deamon, and a Lash Prince themselves and almost won. You pile in a whole bunch of Black Templars into a combat and let Grimuldus pop his relic, that is a crap ton of dice the BT player has at his disposal.

Nice bat rep, for a newer player (me) its nice to get to see illustrations and a blow by blow sequence, another way to help me see how other armies work, thanks again!

That's one of the reasons I like to make these. It is also out of my desire to see White Dwarf Batreps with competent competitive players. Trust me, there are plans in motion to generate Batreps featuring some of our areas top gamers. Hopefully they will be less one sided affairs for a better read.

Must...make...real....tables! Grey sackcloth=sin!

That was a result of the location where this was played (Capt. K's work). More Batreps from me will be on professional tables. This Batrep was more of an afterthough to the game rather then the full set up.

you cheated you cant take Neophyates in drop pods cant spell other then that pretty good *unless i misread some where
Sorry to say it so harshly .....or you misread. Good report though and Grimaldus is awsome !!!!!!!!

Nice battle report. It's good to see people taking the effort to make pictures and diagrams.

You can take Neophytes in Drop Pods... they're part of a Crusader Squad, so they can do what they all can.
That was a great BatRep. Like Nurglitch said, it's good to see people take the time to show diagrams and photos.

Mahu wrote:From a list perspective, the Black Templars may not seem that powerful, but I assure you, Land Raider Crusader heavy lists are hard to crack. In a recent RTT, his Command Squad took on Abbandon, a Greater Deamon, and a Lash Prince themselves and almost won. You pile in a whole bunch of Black Templars into a combat and let Grimuldus pop his relic, that is a crap ton of dice the BT player has at his disposal.

To clarify...

If I recall correctly Abaddon wounded himself twice, and I missed a TON with some really bad dice rolls. And it was the command squad, chaplain, and Grimaldus. Even so, it was an incredible feat of cc prowess.

BT, while underused in my opinion, are certainly not to be underestimated.

I plan to do more Battle Reports with the Black Templars once fifth hits to show how capable they really are.

WhiteDevil, if you don't mind, I wouldn't mind pitting your chaos in a few Bat Reps. Your miniatures are well painted and you play at a competitive level.

Really you can take neophatyes in drop pods ? ? i'll ask in another forum i thinkyou cant

Dude. I played this game at work. :S

Capt K

Stelek wrote:Must...make...real....tables! Grey sackcloth=sin!

Yes you can. THere is no restriction. Heck, even vanilla marines can put scouts in a pod.

Capt K

ghostmaker wrote:Really you can take neophatyes in drop pods ? ? i'll ask in another forum i thinkyou cant

True. He did, but I had to wade through a T5 character with a 2+/4+, a T5 3+/4+, and a T6 4+ save....with only 14 models...LOL. Additionally, I was the only player that day to accomplish that feat.

Capt K

WhiteDevil wrote:

Mahu wrote:From a list perspective, the Black Templars may not seem that powerful, but I assure you, Land Raider Crusader heavy lists are hard to crack. In a recent RTT, his Command Squad took on Abbandon, a Greater Deamon, and a Lash Prince themselves and almost won. You pile in a whole bunch of Black Templars into a combat and let Grimuldus pop his relic, that is a crap ton of dice the BT player has at his disposal.

To clarify...

If I recall correctly Abaddon wounded himself twice, and I missed a TON with some really bad dice rolls. And it was the command squad, chaplain, and Grimaldus. Even so, it was an incredible feat of cc prowess.

BT, while underused in my opinion, are certainly not to be underestimated.

K thanks didnt know that well i didnt think you could mix them... Do love the Battle Report it was good keep it up yall

How much does crap-ton exactly weigh? I hope it is not literally a tonne of crap as that would really stink. Know what I mean?

G

Mahu wrote:I plan to do more Battle Reports with the Black Templars once fifth hits to show how capable they really are.

WhiteDevil, if you don't mind, I wouldn't mind pitting your chaos in a few Bat Reps. Your miniatures are well painted and you play at a competitive level.

There's no question that they are awesome in 5th. I'll be back up in Orlando in a couple weeks. We can play then. I'll be trying something new soon though, just not sure what it will be...

Cool!


G

Very nice report. kinda one sided sadly.

Nice reoprt. It was a terribly sad.

@ghostmaker:
BT can mix Initiates and Neophytes. Vanilla SM cannot. You'll note that the Crusader Squad entry in the BT Codex is very different from the Tactical Squad entry in the SM Codex. I believe this is where you're getting confused.

Read each entry. You'll see what I mean.

@OP:
I'm so very much looking forward to 5th Edition. Run+Zeal will basically give Templars Jump Packs for free.

@Capt K:
With retinues making ICs count as an upgrade character in 5th, I'm most definitely going to be putting Grimaldus in a Command Squad from now on, especially when you consider how much damage said squad will do.

I'm more of a footslogging horde BT player, but I really like the list you've put together. Chaulk up another for Templars.

CK

@Capt K:
With retinues making ICs count as an upgrade character in 5th, I'm most definitely going to be putting Grimaldus in a Command Squad from now on, especially when you consider how much damage said squad will do.

If you think his command squad will be nasty, try High Marshal Helbrect's command squad.

Capt K