Had a cracking game against Sid Wards Legio Fureans last night, and got to take my Knight Household out for a spin for the first time in forever.
Turn 1 was a lot of positioning on my part, and only a little shooting from my Acastus Knight that opened up the shields on a Fureans Warhound. In return I lost a pair of Knights from my lance to the warlords overcharged plasma cannon and another to it's macro-gatling blaster, plus a Questoris knight freeblade to a plasma blast from a Warhound.
Turn 2 all hell broke lose. An orbital lance strike cooked 2 of the Fureans aligned knights, and a disruptive EM burst prevented their warlord from being issued orders. The knights closed more distance, with the Fureans forces backing off to keep them out of melee range. More knights were chipped away but the Fureans forces, but House Mallinax pushed forwards regardless. Even the high-kings banner lost 2 of their number, their steeds reduced to slag by the Warlords plasma cannon. it wasn't all so one-sided this time though one of the lancers managed reach the Warlord and take it's plasma cannon offline briefly, and the other pair of lancers cornered one of of the Warhounds and started attempting to take it apart. The Acastus knight started its work proper, and managed to damage a Fureans Warhound, bur most of its shots went wide and nothing telling was accomplished.
Turn 3 was tight, with losses on both sides. The knights closed in on the Warlord, the High-Kings' banner charging and even managing to get a few points of damage through to the warlords body, the Acastus Knight turned it's Warhound target into a smouldering ruin, while remaining banners harassed other Warhounds and tried (nearly succeeded even!) to pull the shields down on the Warlord. However, the warlord managed to get it's plasma cannon back online and this time slagged the High-king and his bannerman.
Turn 4 things started to swing in the favour of the knights, even as losses mounted. Knights continued to swarm around the warlord, and bother the remaining Warhounds, but their numbers were dwindling. One of the Fureans Warhounds, critically damaged, cooked off as it strained it's already overtaxed reactors. As it collapsed, it's weapons discharged wildly, stripping the shields from it's partner as it fell. The now shieldless Warhound carried on, and evaporated the last knight lancer that was harrying it. The other remaining Warhound tried to deal with the Acastus knight, but it's sturdy, heavily armoured bulk wouldn't go down easy, and that left it open to being charged in the rear by a lonely knight, that managed to get a fair amount of damage done! The Warlord reduced 3 more knights to cinders and scrap with it's massive weapon systems, but it was too little to late to save it's self. With a volley of missiles to remove it's last shield, the Acastus Knight slammed all 4 shots from it's lascannon into the body of the great war-engine, coring it out utterly. as if fell however, it managed to crush the last 2 knights that remained at it's feet, miraculously avoiding the final friendly knight at it's feet.
The fith and final turn was a short one. My last few knights positioned themselves to hide in my opponents deployment zone to score me maximum points from my primary objective, while denying Sid any at all. The Acastus Knight used it's lascannon to turn the last Fureans aligned Knight into naught but a crater in the movement phase, one of the Fureans Warhounds rector melted down in the repair phase, and the other attempted a charge on the Acastus Knight to try and take it out of the picture, only to bounce off of it's bulky frame and then be vandalised by it's lascannons in the shooting phase.
A decisive win for House Mallinax, though I feel a whole heap of that could be attributed to how bonkers even a single Acastus Knight is. It costs far, far to few points for it to be responsible around half of my opponents casualties. Maybe I'll leave it at home next time.
.................Maybe.
