Mechanicus forces vs. Renegades - with pictures

The latest battle report from Göttingen features the_real_Deus and his 10 Imperial Guardsmen (Squad Rating 167) with a strong Mechanicus theme vs. our only player who isn't registered in this forum and her 14 Renegades (Squad Rating 194) which disguised as Chaos Space Marines.

We played a normal Skirmish Scenario, 6th game for the Mechanicus and 3rd game for the Renegades. Compulsory routing was delayed to 50+% losses as our other games seemed a bit short sometimes and the rules concerning compulsory routing are revisited anyways.

We jump right into the action as the two squads meet for combat in an old fungal forest. Just don't mind the pink spots, one of the guys deosn't want to appear on pictures in the evil internet


The Battlefield


Mechanicus deployment


Mechanicus deployment overview (the assassin on the mushroom will infiltrate later)




Renegades deployment


Lurking assassin


Let Battle Commence!

Mechanicus Turn 1



Troops are advancing and take defensive positions behind the wall.

Renegades Turn 1


Renegades are slowly advancing


One Renegade tries a cheap shot at the assassin, sees her, hits and crits but she easily dodges. (The crit was already rolled before we remembered the dodge)


Total after turn 1

Mechanicus Turn 2


The Guardsmen are advancing behind the pyramid


The Assassin returns fire, hits, wounds, crits (grazing shot) and the Renegade flees 3" before being stunned.


The machinegun springs into action with a total of 4 shots on a group of 3 Renegades, causing 1 hit, 1 wound, 1 crit (head shot) and taking one Renegade OOA
The sniper fires at the Renegade priest but misses, while the recruit with autogun fires (with BS 5) at a Renegade but still manages to miss.

Renegades Turn 2



There is only little advancement on the left flank to shoot at the assassin, the rest rushes forward towards the pyramid or takes up firing positions.


The Renegade with autogun fires at the MG, hits but fails to wound.


2 Renegades try to shoot at the assassin but both fail to see her while all shots at the right flank miss their target.

Mechanicus Turn 3




The close combat oriented soldiers advanced on the whole front, the rest sits back and shoots.

One Recruit (Rank) on the right flank fires at a Renegade, 2 hits, 1 wound and stunnes him. The other Recruit (File) on this flank fires at another Renegade, hits, crits (exit wound) and takes the Renegade OOA.


Missing Renegade, the invisible model between the two visible ones


The machine gunnerfires 4 shots (again!) at the recruit, scores 4 hits, 1 normal wound and two crits (Ricochet and Head Shot) but the ricochet fails to wound the priest. The sniper fires at the now visible priest but misses.


On the left flank the leader hits with her shotgun but causes no wounds, the assassin fires at the same target, scores 2 hits, 1 wound and knocks him down.

Renegades Turn 3


The Chaos Renegades conjure some beer cover to protect them from enemy fire but the cover is emptied in almost no time...




The rest of the Renegades advances to bring their flamer and other models into position.


Still, the flames fall short for about 1" and the Renegade next to the flamer misses everything as well.

The commander shots at the Mechanicus priest but fails to wound and the Mutant with Bulging Eyes misses as well...


Total after 3 turns.

Mechanicus Turn 4 - things get bloody

The assassin and the priest declare charges, the rest moves forward or sits back to shoot.


Sloth, the blue recruit on the left flank fires and hits but scores no wound.


The Leader fires a shotgun at the Renegades, hits twice, scores 1 wound and stunnes him, pushing him out of charging reach of the assassin (hidden behind the mushroom).

The sniper with hellgun fires full auto at the flamer-renegade, scores 1 hit and no wound.
The Medic on the right flank fires at the close combat mutant, hits and crits (ricochet) but the wound is saved. Rhe recruit next to the medic fires and hits as well but scores no wound.
The other Recruit fires at the Mutant Sergeant with Hellgun, scores 2 hits, 1 crit (master shot) and takes the Renegade officer OOA.



The flamer servitor is finally in a good shooting position and covers three renegades with his template. The renegade commander is knocked down, the Enforcer saves his wound and one normal Renegade is stunned. Good shot!



Both the assassin and the priest fail their charge as their targets are already OOA or pushed away by a shotgun.

Renegades Turn 4


The Mutant Sergeant declares a charge against the medic, the enforcer against the priest and one normal Renegade against the assassin. The rest of the squad moves into better positions.

One renegade shoots at the assassin but misses twice, the Priest misses the Mechanicus Leader, the flamer fires at the leader but the wound is saved and finally the commander fires at the mechanicus priest but fails to wound. A typical example of effective renegade shooting repeated throughout the game...


Mutant and Enforcer charge!

The assassin is charged as well but just jumpes out of close combat.

Close Combat: The Enforcer hits the priest with both sword and pistol but fails to wound twice, the priest hits twice but the enforcer steps aside twice.
The Mutant Sergeant hits with his pistol and knocks down the medic, but his poisonous spit fails to wound.

Things are not really improving for the Renegades.

Mechanicus Turn 5


The Assassin declares a charge at the two Renegades, the Leader declares a charge at the priest and the rest is going to shoot.


The MG fires two shots at a Renegade but misses both, the sniper fires at the flamer, hits, wounds and knocks him down. The Recruit Sloth knocks down another recruit. Both are to be charged by the assassin...


The Flamer fires again at the commander and one Renegade, the commander saves and the renegade is stunned again.


One of the Recruits fires twice at the commander, scores 2 hits, 2 wounds and the commander saves both.


The assassin charges the two knocked down recruits, the leader fails her fear test and fails the charge at the priest. (We later discovered that she wasn't allowed to move at all and just placed her back after the picture was taken.
The assassin scored a critical hit (Sliced) and took one Renegade OOA, but didn't wound the other renegade.

The Priest and the Enforcer have the same initiative. The priest scores 2 hits(the enforcer fails both step aside and parry), 1 critical (Dazed; we didn't count the number of crits Deus rolled in this battle...) and stunned the enforcer who in return missed with his sword and faild to wound with his pistol.

The Mutant missed the medic with his sword, failed to wound with his pistol and missed with his spit. The medic scored 1 hit but no wound in return.

Renegade Turn 5
Most of the Renegades have to recover from being stunned or knocked down but some still manage to take part in the fighting. The Priest declares a charge at the Mechanicus leader and the commander declares a charge at the flamer servitor.
I missed most of the shooting as I was looking up a rule but it was uneventful as usual. The Flamer scored a wound at the leader which was saved.

Close Combat.

The commander charges the flamer servitor and manages to score a wound with his chainsword and stunnes the servitor. First wound for the Renegades in this game!
The Enforcer is taken OOA by the Mechanicus preacher, the assassin misses and is missed by the recruit.


The Renegade preacher charges the Mechanicus leader, who fails her second leadership test due to fear and misses with her close combat attacks. The priest tries to persuade her to join the dark side and seemed to have very good arguments (third failed leadership test in a row^^). The mechanicus leader joined the renegades for three turns.

Mechanicus Turn 6

The two recruits Rank and File declare charges at the Mutant Sergeant, the rest fires. The MG fires 4 shots at the Flamer, scores 3 hits and 1 wound and stunnes him. The sniper misses. The Priest charges a knocked down recruit,
scores another crit and stunnes him.


One recruit fails his fear test, but the other hits the Mutant with his combat knife, but does not wound him. The Medic hits with 2 attacks but scores no wound as well. The Mutant misses with his attacks against the medic. The assassin has three attacks, scores 1 hit but no wound, the recruit hits her but she steps aside.
The Commander takes the flamer servitor OOA (First Renegade Kill!)

Renegades Turn 6




One renegade fires at a Recrout and misses twice, the controlled Leader fires at the MG but misses twice, the priest misses as well. The commander fires two shots at a recruit, scores 1 hit and takes him OOA.

In close combat, the assassin knocks down the renegade and the priest takes another renegade OOA.


The Muntant scores one hit against the medic which is parried, medic, recruit and poisonous spit all miss.

Mechanicus Turn 7


Firers move into better positions and the priest gets into grenade range to the renegade commander. The grenade hits and knocks the commander down.

The sniper fires two shots at the renegade priest, scores 1 hit, 1 wound and knocks him down. MG fires two shots at the priest, scores 1 hit but no wound. The blue recrout hits a renegade and takes him OOA.
In Close Combat the assassin hits the renegade and takes him OOA.
The mutant hits and stunnes the medic but (as they have the same initiative) the medic hits and crits the mutant and takes him OOA.

Renegades Turn 7


With 10 men OOA and some more knocked down it still seems as if the medic has everything under control. He didn't do anything but hide the whole game. But the other Renegades have had enough and fail their rout test.


The empty battlefield.


Despite heavy losses the renegades (and even this heavily injured soldier) recover very well after the battle and loose only one renegade militia. The Mechanicus has no losses.

Holy Crap! This is great!

I love the "Chaos Cookies".

You guys are awesome!!!!

Giant pink arm reaches into bowl of chips!

Great report - loved the detail - thanks for sharing!

Laney

Thanks alot for that report!

COOL REPORT; WONDERFUL PHOTOS! AND now I understand the allure of chaos...what kind of cookies?

Quote :

..what kind of cookies?

Most scholars say it have to be the ones with big chunks of chocolate in them

Also it is said Slaanesh offers pink suggar frosted cookies and Nurgle bakes them with old fruits (for the flies). Tzeentch constantly changes the recipe, so no idea what his cookies are like. Khorne cares not for more cookies for the cookie throne, you'd be better adviced with marzipan skulls there.

GREAT report! It is a play by play... GREAT! I was wondering WHY edit the picture with pink? Who works for Slaanesh?

It looks like you guys play a lot like we do... there is more joking than shooting or slashing... and we do LOTS of shooting & slashing! How did the Routing at 50% worked for you? How was the post game? Any questions or other comments?

LOVE the cookies recepie comment... heheh!

Why pink? The true question (as posed by the chaos gods (one of them) to any who deems himself worthy of ascending on the ladder to eternal damnation) is: Why not pink?

Due to horrendously one-sided dice rolling (the side with the one being on top for the renegade player and on the bottom for the mechanicus player most of the time) the renegades suffered tremendous losses. As the renegades are more equipped for close quarter fire and the mechanicus is better at long range fire, the game might have been over after mechanicus turn 4, when the renegades had already lost 4 models (>25%).

Imagine this game being over after Mechanicus Turn 4. Almost nothing interesting happened till then. But the real action of the game startet in turn 5 and 6, with lots of close combat attacks and the first kill for the renegades. Cookies, a grenade attack, some flamer attacks and a close combat mutant getting beaten by a Medic. We would have missed all this fun.

After Mechanicus Turn 7 the game was over one way or the other. Even if the renegades managed to pass the routing test, there wouldn't have been anyone left to fight.

We experienced similar situations in some of our previous games. The more close combat oriented squads are almost certain to suffer about 25% casualties, before they can really get to grips with their opponents if they fight against a shooty squad.

Charge - Fire (one man down) - Chaaaarge! - Fire (second man down) - CHAAARGE!! - Fire (third man down) - CHAAARGE, we can reach them now. Oh wait, we lost a quarter of our men, better retreat now before our axes get dirty...

If a squad really gets a thorough beating, it should be able to voluntarily rout after 25% casualties. Normally you can judge then whether you still have a chance of turning the battle or not. If you have to wait for 50% casualties before withdrawing voluntarily that would create boring or one-sided situations too often.

25% voluntary rout threshold, 50% compulsory rout threshold seems fine to me.
As this battle went there certainly was no need for a compulsory rout test (almost no renegades left standing anyway). But in situations like these it can still be a moral boost. After all, you did not chicken out! You just withdrew your last two soldiers because the dice forced you to but you did not pack and run. So morally, you are still a winner


Post battle sequence? As I remember it, the Mechanicus recovered completely and the Renegades lost one Militiasoldier. An officer was saved by the Medic (good to have one!). Both earned average amounts of credits. The Renegades replaced their casualty and the Mechanicus saved their money for an ogryn. Some advancement rolls. Mostly skills as usual. My orks seem to be the only squad with an above-average roll of stats instead of skills. But orks are stat-based anyways so thats fine by me