Batrep: Blood Angels + Knight vs Khornate Chaos Marines, 1750 pts*

This is my 2nd outing with the Knight, and since it's been bloody ages since I've scribbled down a batrep, I figured it's high time I did. My opponent for this scrap was David, who was rather bravely fielding a very fluffy Chaos Marine list: (almost) pure Khorne! Anyway, a quick look at the lists.

My Blood Angels:
Librarian with plasma pistol and force axe (Powers: Prescience and Scrier's Gaze)
5 Assault Marines with Infernus pistol, meltabombs, and a meltagun in a Land Raider Redeemer with multimelta
5 Assault Marines with Infernus pistol, meltabombs, and a meltagun in a Razorback with lascannon and twin-linked plasmagun
5 Assault Marines with Infernus pistol, meltabombs, and a flamer in a Razorback with lascannon and twin-linked plasmagun
5 Scouts with sniper rifles, a missile launcher and camo cloaks
2 x Stormraven Gunships, each with hurricane bolters
Baal Predator with heavy bolter sponsons
Knight Errant

Warlord Trait: Strategic Genius

All ground vehicles were also upgraded with searchlights. Nothing complicated here, just a Knight Errant marching forth with mechanized Blood Angels in support. A pair of Stormravens covers the air support, and a Baal Predator is there to make a right nuisance of himself. Bitter experience has taught me that 1 Stormraven is never enough, and putting anything in there without an invulnerable save is a horribly risky move. At this points level, the Stormraven is a serious investment in points, and 1 cannot be relied on to do what needs doing.

*ADDENDUM: On closer inspection of my list the next morning, I realized that I didn't actually have points to field the Baal Predator. This is quite an embarrassing oversight on my part. Sorry, David. Still, given the performance of the Scouts (or lack thereof), this battle played out evenly enough to give some insight on the use of the Knight Errant, so I'm still leaving this batrep here.

David's Chaos Marines:
Kharne the Betrayer
Khorne Daemon Prince with wings, power armour and Axe of Blind Fury
8 Berserkers with a power axe for the champion, in a Rhino
8 Berserkers with a power axe for the champion, in a Rhino
8 Berserkers with a power axe for the champion, in a Rhino
Vindicator with siege shield and daemonic possession
Vindicator with siege shield and daemonic possession
3 Obliterators with Mark of Nurgle and Veterans of the Long War
Heldrake

Yeah, *almost* pure Khorne. But seriously, who in their right mind would field Obliterators and not give them the Mark of Nurgle? This is one of those lists that looks really characterful on paper but, in 6th edition 40k, is insanely difficult to play. Between the Berserkers and Kharne, that's nearly 700 pts of close combat lethality, but with only Rhinos to get them across the board and only 8 bodies in each squad, it is not going to be easy to put their skills to use.

Mission: The Relic
Deployment: Hammer and Anvil. I won the roll to go first and took first turn. Night fighting was active on the first turn.

Seeing as I was the one here with the bigger guns and troops in nice fast transports, I decided on a strategy of mauling the enemy at range, keeping the Knight close to the centre to threaten any attempt to grab the relic and, of course, brutalize anything worth shooting at with that lovely thermal cannon. In its first outing, the poor Knight was nuked when it lost 4 hull points to a single melta hit. As such, I was especially wary of the 2 Vindicators.

Ordinarily I would outflank my Baal Predator, but I could see this was a game where I wanted to inflict as much ballistic violence as possible, and so opted to have it start on the board, so I could fire as many guns as possible for as many turns as possible.

So, a simple mission with a simple plan. Read on to find out how it played out...

Turn One:
Blood Angels: David tried to steal the initiative and failed. I scooted my units a little bit forward, taking care to stay out of Vindicator range, then took my potshots.

On my left, I lit up the daemon prince first with a Razorback, then let the bugger have it with the Baal Predator. Between the two tanks, I only managed to nick 2 wounds off the daemon prince. Towards the center, the Redeemer managed to blow up a Rhino, winning me First Blood. The other Razorback and the Knight tried to take out the nearest Vindicator, but had no luck.

Chaos Marines: Undaunted, all of David's forces moved up. The daemon prince flew by the Razorback on my left and vector struck, taking 2 hull points, stunning it and tearing off the lascannon. The Vindicators shuffled around behind the ruins to take up firing positions or hide from the Knight.

In the shooting phase, the Vindicators tried to take a shot at the Scouts, but they went to ground and took no casualties. The Obliterators tried firing their lascannons at the Baal Predator, but it was saved by cover.

Turn Two:
BA: My Librarian cast Scrier's Gaze, ensuring both my Stormravens arrived. Whiteraven made a beeline for the daemon prince. Goldraven headed to the right to attack the Vindicators. At the centre, I continued to hold back my Knight, but moved up with the Redeemer.

Whiteraven opened up on the daemon prince with the multimelta, assault cannon and hurricane bolters, and the volume of fire was enough to shred the prince into ribbons. The Baal Predator, hemmed in by the terrain, moved a little and fired away at the fast-approaching squad of Berserkers, killing 3. Not nearly enough... The Redeemer blasted the nearby Rhino with its flamestorm cannon, catching another 3 hapless Berserkers and glancing the Rhino. The Knight and Razorback targeted the rightmost squad of Berserkers, killing 5 between them, but Kharne, who was with that squad, was unscathed. Goldraven fired on the nearest Vindicator, but the wretched machine was saved by cover, only getting stunned, which it shook off, thanks to daemonic possession.

CSM: David's Heldrake arrived and headed towards my Knight. I expected he planned to try and vector strike the Knight at some point... On the left, a squad of Berserkers headed towards my Baal Predator. The Berserkers that got lightly roasted earlier clambered aboard their Rhino and backed away. Meanwhile, Kharne's group of Berserkers headed for the Redeemer.

In shooting, the Vindicators managed to take a hull point off the Knight and the Obliterators once again did sodall. The Berserkers on the left charged the Baal Predator, easily blowing it up. Elsewhere, Kharne's squad surprised me when Kharne managed to attack and blow up the Redeemer! One assault marine was killed in the explosion.

Whoopsy! Forgot to take a pic...

Turn 3:
BA: The Librarian cast Prescience on his squad. This was my chance to kill Kharne! Goldraven and Whiteraven switched sides, Goldraven heading left to the squad of Berserkers that had just blown up the Baal Predator, Whiteraven heading right to target the Heldrake. The Knight and nearby Razorback surged forward, converging on Kharne's squad.

On the left, the Razorback and Goldraven managed to wipe out the Berserkers and their Rhino. The other Razorback got lucky, killing Kharne and one Berserker. The Librarian's squad then targeted the nearby Rhino, but only managed to glance it. Whiteraven managed to take down the Heldrake in one salvo. The Knight continued to fire on the Vindicators and was again foiled by the ruins.

The Librarian's squad then assaulted the last Rhino and wrecked it.

CSM: Things were looking grim for David now, as he was rapidly running out of troops to take the relic. Still, this being his first time facing a Knight, he figured at the very he could get some sort of moral victory from killing it. I'm not sure how, seeing as I'd never seen a Knight survive a battle before...

Anyway, the Vindicators lined up to fire on the Knight, and the Obliterators lumbered forward to try and get line of sight to the Librarian's squad.

Shooting went exceedingly well for David, as a lucky shot from one Vindicator blew 4 hull points off the Knight. The other Vindicator managed to get a shot past the ion shield, and the Knight exploded spectacularly, killing 2 of the Librarian's squad, including the sergeant. The Obliterators switched to assault cannons, and unleashed a withering, albeit surprisingly inaccurate hail of fire on the Librarian's squad, killing only one. Another fell to bolt pistol fire from the squad of Berserkers which had just lost their ride.

In assault, the lone surviving Berserker from Kharne's squad, miraculously unscathed, charged the Librarian's squad and managed to take down the last marine. The Librarian quickly cut him down with his power axe, and that was that.

Turns 4-5:
Despite the violence of Turn 3, I still had 2 Stormravens in the air. My remaining forces went to work, systematically wiping out the remainder of David's army. At the end of Turn 5, I had the Librarian, a 5 man team of Assault marines, the Scouts (who killed NOTHING in 5 turns of shooting), and both Ravens. David had the Obliterators, each of which was wounded. Points wise, I had Linebreaker, Slay the Warlord and First Blood, while David had nothing. The relic, I should point out, was untouched the whole game.

Afterthoughts:
Well, 2nd time bringing out the Knight to play, and he still hasn't managed to smack anything with that chainsword (which I spent AGES painting!). A bit vexing, but hell, if I was facing something waving a D-strength weapon at me, I would most certainly direct a lot of my efforts towards killing it.

The fact of the matter is it's really not that hard at all to kill a Knight. At 1,750 pts, a Knight isn't just something who can pop into a list and leave to putter about and kill stuff. It needs support. This list doesn't quite do the job, as most of it functions at range, with close combat being an option only when the enemy is already shot to pieces.  Looks like learning how to put that bigass chainsword to use is going to take a while...