Following the win into Necrons game one we then get the pleasure of Imperial Knights, who also scored big round1.
Opponent’s List:
Knight Defender
Knight Warden
3 Warglaives
4 Helverins
Navigator
Callidus Assassin
Mission: Hidden Supplies – Search and Destroy
Deployment
UKTC Search and Destroy boards are brutal — firing lanes cut right across the no man’s land objectives, so unless you’re infantry, nothing is safe if you want to stand on an objective.
I deployed with aggression in mind, but kept my Stalkers ready to scout back if needed.
Stalkers on both flanks and in the center
Huntsman and Brigands centrally
Plaguebearers holding my home objective
Nurglings pushed up onto my expansion to move-block and slow any early pressure
2 Huntsman in reserve
My opponent deployed:
Warglaives centrally
Helverins mostly on my right flank
1 Warglaive near the Defender to screen against early charges
The Callidus Assassin near his expansion objective
Navigator in reserve (not a lone op)
I won the roll-off again and took first turn.
Early Game
With the Stalkers scouting up, I went straight after the Warglaive and the Callidus. My mindset: I’ve got 15 units to his 11, so I can outtrade efficiently until the big Knights need to be ganged up on.
The key would be leveraging reactive moves and fight-on-death to control game tempo.
I pushed four War Dogs up aggressively, staging near the center and my expansion while the rest held supporting positions.
Then came the shooting phase — and it was grim.
My Stalker put a single wound on the Callidus Assassin with its Havoc launcher.
All four Daemonbreath Spear shots missed into a Warglaive from the 2 Stalkers that could see down my left flank.
In the charge phase, things didn’t improve:
My Stalker whiffed all four attacks into the Callidus.
My other Stalker only did 4 damage to the Warglaive.
Brutal start.
In return, my opponent punished me hard — deleting three War Dogs with minimal exposure, just a Armiger on my opponents expansion would be visible on the right flank.
However, I did manage to keep a War Dog alive on my expansion, netting me 5 Primary points next turn.
Mid Game
Heading into Turn 2, I was feeling cornered and boxed in. Time to switch gears — all gas, no brakes. If I couldn’t outshoot or combat I’d out-pressure.
Every War Dog that couldn’t shoot advanced forward. Full send.
The War Dog remaining on my expansion moved up to make a 6" charge on the Warglaive I’d failed to kill earlier, while my guns focused on the Armiger sitting on my opponent’s expansion and into my opponents Deployment zone.
Both Huntsmen came in from reserve near his backfield, outside his deployment zone.
This time, the dice swung my way.
Two Armigers went down.
Another was crippled.
The exploding Armiger on his expansion dealt 3 wounds to the Callidus, finishing her off and scoring me Assassinate.
Suddenly, the pressure was back on my opponent — three War Dogs were now pressuring his expansion, with more closing in on his backfield.
He took a few minutes to plan and committed to killing five War Dogs. But fortune favored me:
I made two critical saves against a Warglaives big melta shots and the meltagun failed to wound.
He rolled poorly to hit with a Helverin, leaving a War Dog alive on handful of wounds.
That was my opening.
I surged forward, targeting the remaining Warglaives and Helverins — destroying three and getting into combat with the Defender, inflicting heavy damage (20 wounds)
At this point, my opponent was left with:
2 Helverins
A limping Defender
A Warden out of position
His Turn 3 saw him pick up a couple of damaged War Dogs, but it wasn’t enough to stem the tide.
Late Game
Turn 4, I sealed the win, it was about scoring pts now.
The Defender and another Helverin went down, swinging the game firmly my way as I had assets around to score and action and kill where needed.
His remaining Warden and lone Helverin managed to score a few points through Area Denial and primary, but couldn’t reach my objectives.
In my final turn, I focused purely on mission play — scoring A Tempting Target and Behind Enemy Lines to pad out the scoreline.
Result: 80–60 WIN!
Post-Game Thoughts
What a rollercoaster.
After a terrible opening turn, I genuinely thought the game was slipping away — but a combination of reactive moves, key saves, and a full-speed counterattack pulled it back.
The Imperial Knights’ firepower is terrifying, but once I broke through their first layer and forced them to split fire, the game flipped in my favour.
In the end, playing the tempo game and avoiding the Warden’s melee threat range made all the difference.
Special Mention – The Plaguebearers!
They quietly played a massive role this game. Being able to sticky an objective is already great, but their high OC and low threat level meant they were completely ignored — and that was exactly what I wanted.
They ran between my home and expansion and when the Navigator came on in Turn 3 to score Locus for my opponent, freeing me to abandon my expansion on Turn 4 without risk they charged the Navigator and killed it, eventually.
That move alone netted me 10 more Primary points. Absolutely amazing utility from such a small unit.
Another win in the bag and we move on to play round3!!
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