Epic 4K: Starship Troopers vs Thousand Sons

Another recent game, with Andrew using more of his cool scratchbuilt forces. He's made a Starship Troopers List (more like the book than movie, but taking some inspiration from movie in terms of vehicles). Now of course Epic doesn't have an official Starship Troopers List (yet), but it does have a list with lots of armoured battlesuits and dropships - Tau again! So Andrew used a limited selection from this list to represent the troopers.

Starship Troopers, Mobile Infantry Company
	(counts as Tau Vior'la)
First Platoon
400	5 Crisis Suits + Shas'o, 2 Gun Drones
325	5 Crisis Suits + Shas'el, 2 Gun Drones
275	6 Stealth Suits + Cadre Fireblade, 2 Gun Drones
Second Platoon
350	5 Crisis Suits + Cadre Fireblade + Shas'el, 2 Gun Drones
275	6 Stealth Suits + Cadre Fireblade, 2 Gun Drones
275	6 Stealth Suits + Cadre Fireblade, 2 Gun Drones
Third Platoon
350	5 Crisis Suits + Cadre Fireblade + Shas'el, 2 Gun Drones
250	6 Stealth Suits + Cadre Fireblade
250	6 Stealth Suits + Cadre Fireblade
Orbital Support
200	Roger Young (Protector Cruiser)
Landing Craft
150	Orca
150	Orca
150	Orca
150	Orca
Fighter Cover
150	2 Barracudas
150	2 Barracudas
150	2 Barracuda

The Trooper infantry are Brigade Minatures Power Armour. Ones with Heavy Weapons on stands count as Crisis Suits, others as Stealth. Single based as Drones. Still need flocking but looks pretty cool.

Here's the whole Trooper force.

Meanwhile I also got a new army out, the Chaos Thousand Sons list.

Egypolas, 3940 POINTS
Thousand Sons (6.0.2)

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RUBRIC FELLOWSHIP [305]
Sorcerer, 6 Thousand Sons Marines units., 3 Rhino

RUBRIC FELLOWSHIP [500]
Sorcerer, 6 Thousand Sons Marines units., 3 Land Raider

AHRIMAN'S CHOSEN [450]
Sorcerer, 9 Thousand Sons Marines units. All have the Teleport ability

SCARAB OCCULT [450]
5 Thousand Sons Adeptus, Daemon Prince of Tzeentch

SILVER TOWER COMPANY [360]
4 Silver Tower

SEKHMET DISC RIDERS [325]
Sorcerer, 9 Disc Riders

SEKHMET DISC RIDERS [325]
Sorcerer, 9 Disc Riders

SEKHMET DISC RIDERS [325]
Sorcerer, 9 Disc Riders

DOOMWING FIGHTERS [150]
3 Doomwing Fighters

DOOMWING FIGHTERS [150]
3 Doomwing Fighters

DOOMWING FIGHTERS [150]
3 Doomwing Fighters

FIRELORD BOMBERS [150]
Firelord Bombers

FIRELORD BOMBERS [150]
Firelord Bombers

FIRELORD BOMBERS [150]
Firelord Bombers

Here's the army, many weird looking disk riders and aircraft! (Note vehicles should be 3 landraiders for one formation and 3 rhinos for other).

And one last picture before we start the battle report, Andrew also brought along some new Feline models he has been working on, these are CinC Miniatures, Solar Empire Marines range, Ga-Ule Felinoids. Looking forward to seeing an army of these!!

Turn 1

Set up - all my forces are on my left flank. Three of my formations are intermingled but I'm not worried about being assaulted. The Troopers are more spread out, with a couple of garrisons forward and more formations off table in their drop ships.

Weird looking disc riders...

I win Strategy Roll, and put Doomwings on Combat Air Patrol (CAP) ready to intercept drop ships. 

Troopers also go on CAP, and then one of my Firelords ground attacks. It is shot down by the interceptors...

And same thing happens to another Firelord.

I send in some more Doomwings and they shoot down two Trooper Interceptors!

The Troopers Intercept the Doomwings, but the Doomwings manage to escape any losses! Yay!

Silver Towers advance...

and blast the garrisoned Troopers killing many.

A Rubric felloship doubles and shoots the Trooper Garrison, breaking them.

Troopers double and crossfire the Fellowship, doing no damage to the heavily armoured units.

The other Rubric felllowship advances to support range, and then the Trooper formation is wiped out in an assault by a Disc Rider formation, for the loss of only a single disc rider.

Trooper spacecraft arrives and planetfalls two dropships.

Dropships take Thousand Son objectives.

Before attacking a Rubric Felloship...

...causing heavy losses.

More Doomwings attack, killing another Trooper interceptor.

Trooper dropship arrives and is intercepted by Doomwings, but only damaged. 

The Troopers who unload severely damage another Disc Rider Formation, killing six of them.

And another dropship arrives in the centre of the field behind the Thousand Sons.

Here's the situation at the end of turn 1.

And on right side of battlefield, many Troopers.

Turn 2

My Chosen teleport near my blitz, picking up two blast markers.

Scarab Occult with Daemon Prince teleport into centre of table.

I win Strategy Roll, and Silver towers move and practically annihilate a Trooper platoon.

But then my Rubric Rellowship with Landraiders fail their retain roll even with reroll! They make a move and mount up. Then the Troopers blast my Scarab Occult with crossfire and kill my Daemon Prince!

Troopers retain and eliminate the remainder of the Scarab Occult.

A Firelord bombs a broken formation leaving only a single survivor.

A Trooper dropship comes in and firefights the broken disc riders, but loses and is destroyed causing no casualties! Ha!

I charge the Chosen into the overwatching Troopers at my Blitz. One is killed by overwatch fire and the Chosen lose the combat but stay where they are being fearless.

Disc Riders come through the Wraith Gate Blitz Objective and wipe out the Troopers here.

Two of my Silver Towers are killed and the other two retreat. My Firelord is shot down, and also one of my Doomwings that tried to intercept after the fact.

End of turn. Can't quite remember the rally results sorry.

Turn 3

I win Strategy Roll again, and my Landraider Rubric engages the Trooper unit behind it, wiping them out.

I retain and assault with the single survivor of  another Rubric Cult here but he loses.

Troopers attack the Disc Riders at my blitz. The Chosen still have not rallied.

And ouch, I've lost!! Because I'm out of enough ground activations to contest everything. Troopers win 4-0.

Conclusion

Interesting game, the Trooper list, despite basically using only two main types of units did very well and was challenging to play against. I admit my own list was somewhat hampered by the "I've just painted all these I want to use them" problem! Also the Firelords were poorly matched in terms of weaponary load and resistance to attack vs this force. Adding some anti-air ground units (Deceivers) as I had originally planned would have ensured a much more balanced and capable force I think. I will need to try these strange Chaos forces again!