Fight for Desperation: Game 1

Our local GW is currently running a campaign called the Fight for Desperation. Pretty simple and they are using a mix of Eternal War, Maelstrom of War and Altar of War missions as well so there is a lot of variety in the scenarios. Also we must stick with our main codex throughout the whole thing, so I chose Cult Mechanicus as I just love the Tech Priest Dominus model and it's probably my best painted model to date.

The blurry picture doesn't do him justice.

My first campaign game was again Adam and his Imperial Fists. I got to choose the scenario so chose a Tau one from the Alter of War book. The idea behind the scenario is that they are testing out a new piece of tech so I thought it'd be ideal for the Mechanicus. I got to choose a unit (in this case my assassins) and they roll on the Tau Tech Toy Table for an upgrade, in this case a single ranged weapon in the unit gains Large Blast. Holy shit the 5 shot burst pistol just got stupid! After that it was just one fuck up after another to the point where we both did stupid stuff because why not. Adam thunderfired his own drop pod because it couldn't do anything and was annoying him, my Techpriest hugged Lysander and the Servitors zapped him and to top it off my last model, a lone Skitarii Ranger, attempted to jump off the roof of a building to commit suicide and survived to be gunned down by a Heavy Bolter. So yeah I got tabled but I learnt some things that'll be useful in the future. Don't keep rolling 1's to wound is probably a good place to start.

The Mechanicus Prepare for War

One of the local games shops is having a tournament in a little over a months time using the Throne of Skulls format (so 1875 points, bound or unbound, tactical objectives). I'll be attending with the Mechanicus. As I've decided that if I get the rest of the Skitarii painted in time I'll buy on of those big War Cohort bundles I'll have plenty of units to choose from. I'll then either take a War Convocation (the white dwarf formation) or a War Cohort formation (the bundle one) depending on what the bundle one does/needs. For now though I'll plan using the War Convocation as I have the rules for that. The initial list I've come up with is this:

Skitarii Battle Maniple (1030)

10 Vanguard - 100
- 3x Plasma Calvier
- Conversion Field
- Phospher Blaster
- Power Sword
- Digital Weapons
- Data Tether
- Pater Radium

10 Rangers - 120
- 3x Arc Rifles
- Arc Pistol
- Arc Maul
- Conversion Field
- Digital Weapons
- Omnispex
- The Skull of Elder Nikola

6 Ruststalkers - 190
- Conversion Field
- Data Spike
- Omniscient Mask
- Digital Weapons

5 Infiltrators - 185
- Flechette Blaster and Taser Goads
- Infoslave Skull
- Conversion Field
- Digital Weapons
- The Phase Taser

3 Ironstriders - 165
- 3x Lascannons

3x Dunecrawlers - 270
- 1x Icarus Array
- 2x Neutron Lasers
- 3x Cognis Stubbers
- 2x Smoke Launchers
- 3x Mindscanner Probes
- 3x Cognis Manipulators

Imperial Knight Oathsworn Detachment (425)

Knight Crusader - 425
- Rapid Fire Battle Cannon
- Stormspear Rocket Pod

Cult Mechanicus Battle Congregation (420)

Tech Priest Dominus - 105
- Eradication Ray
- Infoslave Skull
- Digital Weapons
- Conversion Field
- Raiment of the Technomartyr

3 Kataphron Destroyers - 165
- 3x Heavy Grav Cannon
- 3x Cognis Flamers

3 Kataphron Breachers - 150
- 3x Torsion Cannons
- 3x Hydraulic Claws

All I have done here is take the basics that I want/need and then fill in the gaps. All wargear, weapons and relics are free thank to the formation so I am only paying for the base cost of the models (hence the Dunecrawlers having ALL OF THE TOYS!!). I might not have much in the way of Strength D (as in, none at all) but I do have a lot of high strength weaponry at both long and close range to deal with anything big and more than enough guns and blasts to knock hordes down to size. I've also got the boost from Imperatives and Canticles so I can dominate both the shooting and assault phases with ease. Most importantly though, it's going to look totally bad ass all together on the table!!

The only problem I'm going to have is my complete and total lack of any psychic defence. I'm not going to be stopping any psychic powers at all, but if they're dead they can't cast powers :P