This play test looked at the viability of the Emperor's Children as a drop-list, and no stats were changed. The lists were as follows:

EMPEROR"S CHILDREN - 2995 points (rttoomey)

355 - Retinue (Sorceror Lord, 2 Noise Marines, Demonic Pact, Champion, Dreadclaws)
355 - Retinue (Sorceror Lord, 2 Noise Marines, Demonic Pact, Champion, Dreadclaws)
405 - Retinue (War Lord, 2 Noise Marines, Demonic Pact, Champion, Rhinos)
170 - Chosen (Demonic Pact, Dreadclaws)
170 - Chosen (Demonic Pact, Dreadclaws)
300 - Armored Company (Land Raiders)
300 - Knight Pack (Hell Scourge)
325 - Bikes (Demonic Pact)
200 - Hell Blades
150 - Spacecraft

265 - Demon Pool (2 Greater Demons, 17 Lesser Demons (6 free from Pacts)

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STEEL LEGION - 3000 points (captPiett)

500 - Regimental HQ (Hydra)
450 - Mechanized Company (Hydra)
550 - Shadowswords (Hydra)
300 - Infantry Company (2 Snipers)
350 - Stormtroopers (Valkyries)
250 - Manticor Battery
100 - Sentinels
150 - Rough Riders
150 - Thunder Bolts
150 - Thunder Bolts

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The initial set-up:



Left off board:



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TURN 1

I won strategy and chose to activate the Spacecraft. The orbital bombardment came in on top of captPiett's blitz, whiffing on just two Rough Riders. The pin-point attack went on the Shadowsword Company's Commissar, inflicting only one wound.



The four dreadclaws came in along SL's front lines, probably too spread out in retrospect.


I elected to reatain, and summoned with the Retinue in the middle of the board, sacrificing the Champion and summoning a Greater Demon and five Fiends of Slaanesh. I then rolled to assault the Stormtroopers, who blew their overwatch when I came running in. I lost both Noise Marines, much to my chagrin, and got seven blast markers for just running in. The assault didn't fare much better, as I proceeded to lose several of the Fiends, only killed one Stormtrooper, and lost everything but the Greater Demon to hackdowns. She retreated back to my half of the table with all of her wounds intact.




The SL Manticores attempted to sustain on the Chosen right in front of them, failed to activate, and elected to take the blast marker and just shot, getting a couple hits. The Chosen made their saves, however, and just took a blast marker for their troubles.


The pack of Hell Scourge doubled up to fire on the Stormtroopers, killing three. I then summoned and retained with my second dropped Retinue, wiping out the Sentinels.



SL activated a unit of Tbolts, choosing to ground attack the Chosen the Manticores fired upon earlier. They managed to kill one off, breaking the unit and causing them to flee into the woods. The Regimental HQ then engaged the Chosen left by themselves in the middle of the board, and it was a little bit of overkill, wiping out the Chosen taking a single casualty.




EC Land Raiders doubled to shoot and break the Stormtroopers, only killing a single Valkyrie.


SL Tbolts unit #2 came in and shot at my War Lord's Retinue, only laying a blast marker on the unit.


EC Hellblades came on, intercepting Tbolts unit #2, killing off one of the pair.


The Rough Riders failed a march order, and regrouped removing all of their blast markers.


EC Bikes marched, attempting to screen the Knight Pack.


The Mechanised Infantry doubled around the woods and shot on the bikes, killing one.


I attempted to double my War Lord, and had to regroup.


Shadowswords attempted to advance, thankfully just laying a blast marker on my Land Raiders.


The Infantry Company sustained on the Retinue that killed off the Sentinels, just laying a blast marker.


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TURN 2

I won the strategy roll, summoned seven Fiends on my Retinue, and engaged the Infantry Company. It was an ugly fight, and all but one stand was killed or hacked down.



SL advanced their Mechanised Infantry on the Knight Pack, managing to knock one off. He then retained with his Regimental HQ, doubling to shoot and kill five of my Bikes.



The Knight Pack sustained on the Mechanised Infantry, inflicting four casualties. The surviving Greater Demon from the ill-fated Retinue failed her advance, and regrouped.



The Shadowswords successfully advanced and killed three of my four Land Raiders. (Apparently I missed a picture of this, but the Land Raider tucked behind the buildings in the center of the table, by the Bikes)

My surviving Chosen advanced out of the woods, shooting and killing one Rough Rider.


The Manticores attempted to sustain, and had to regroup. (Apparently I missed a picture of this, too)

The War Lord's Retinue doubled, shooting on the Mechanised Infantry, and inflicted one casualty.


The single Tbolt shot at the War Lord's Retinue, inflicting two casualties.


I thought it would be a good idea to intercept the Tbolt with my Hellblades, and killed off the unit.


However, this would be to my detriment, Since the last pair of Tbolts would come in and take out two of my Hellblades.


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TURN 3



I won the strategy again, rolling a 6, and adding one demon to the pool. I summoned on my War Lord's Retinue, again sacrificing the Champion to summon in the remaining Greater Demon and a Daemonette. I then engaged the Mechanised Infantry, and won the assault. The lone Greater Demon then doubled up to shoot at the Regimental HQ, inflicting one casualty.




The Rough Riders attempted to march again, and were only able to move.


The Hell Scourge advanced on the Regimental HQ, inflicting three casualties.


SL Manticores sustained on the last Retinue, inflicting one casualty. The Shadowswords doubled, shooting on the same Retinue, inflicting another casualty and breaking the unit.



The lone Land Raider advanced and shot on the Shadowswords, inflicting 2 casualties on one of them. The Chosen then sustained on the lone stand from the Infantry Company, just causing it to break.



The Regimental HQ sustained on the Knights, inflicting 5 hits, laying 3 casualties, one-apiece to the remaining three Knights.


The remaining Hellblade stood down.

The Tbolts came in shooting the Knights, breaking the unit.


=====
TURN 4



I won strategy, and elected to have captPiett go first. He doubled his Shadowswords, killing the Keeper of Secrets, and breaking the unit. He then sustained on the Chosen, just laying a blast marker.



I activated the lone Keeper of Secrets, doubled her and inflicted just one hit on the Shadowswords.


Tbolts came on, shooting at my War Lord's Retinue, killing off my re-roll due to bad placement on my part.


My lone Land Raider advanced, laying a blast marker on the Shadowswords.


The Regimental HQ advanced, breaking the Land Raider.


The Chosen chose to marshal, moving and regrouping, but only removed one blast marker.


The Rough Riders marched (finally) to deny my Defend the Flag and They Shall Not Pass.


My Bikes advanced into the woods, holding my own blitz, and the solo Hellblade died to AA trying to bring the Stormtroopers to under half for the purpose of points.

=====

SCORE
Steel legion killed 1665 points
Emperor's Children killed 725 points.

A 940 point victory for the Steel Legion.

edit: I can totally do math.

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--Ruth

Night Lords Sub-AC

Night Lords Painting Blog

My thoughts:

Even though, looking back I would have planned the drop differently, I liked the list a lot, especially going heavy on demons. The army really help its own despite the heavy loss at the start of the turn. I feel like I could have fortified the units I was dropping in a bit, boosting the numbers to eight CSM rather than six of them to start with, and passed on the Pacts on the Chosen.

It might have been better if I dropped closer together along the front lines, which was the intention, but garrisons messed that up a bit, bumping stuff almost 20cm off course. I could have also benefitted from trying to clip the army by dropping on one edge, but I dislike doing that mainly due to the fact that the other army can just move away and you spend the rest of the game playing catch-up.

I think I may be in love with the Hell Scourge. I feel like they got into the fray faster, with the longer range and large number of shots. I think, in general, if you're going to run the Emperor's Children, there's absolutely no reason to NOT bring a Knights Pack, especially at their current costing. They didn't feel OTT, but they did feel a little overpowered for their points cost. Afterwards, I was thinking to myself "I can't believe that they were only 75 points apiece". I think it needs more testing with all the different flavors of Knights, but they may stand to receive a small cost increase. As far as I can tell, this is the first test with the Scourge.

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--Ruth

Night Lords Sub-AC

Night Lords Painting Blog

Thanks Ruth. This was the first time I faced the EC. I decided to take my fairly successful SL tournament list. Funny how it went right back into character, causing much frustration and a grueling battle, but resulting in a points win.

Overall it's a lot like facing a regular BL list, which I don't think is a bad thing. The blastmasters on the land raiders were useful in laying extra BMs on my shadowswords, since they have an AT value. The noise marine upgrades are useful in a bit of an unexpected way in denying an easy BTS, with fearless.

On the knights, they were not as scary as I expected. They put some dents in the mechanized company, but were also broken by a depleted mech company with 6 BMs. The hell scourge is basically toting around a Vulcan mega bolter with one fewer shots, and 5+ RA inv didn't really help them much. However, my opinion of knights is somewhat colored by two batreps yet to be posted, in which they under performed.

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Let us playtest like the Greeks of old... You know the ones I mean

Allow me to clarify more on my suggestion of a slight points increase:

I'm talking increasing JUST the Hell Scourge about 10 points per model.

Like I said, I don't feel they were over the top. But I do feel they're on another level than what I've seen from the Hell Knights, and I haven't seen the AV flavor in action yet. My thoughts could be very unfounded here.

All things considered, I'm used to a far more in-your-face list with the Red Corsairs, going Raptor Cult heavy in the build, and throwing them in THawks. So firepower isn't something I deal with all the time, and was more noted on my part in this game.

_________________
--Ruth

Night Lords Sub-AC

Night Lords Painting Blog

Enjoyed! Thanks for the report.

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Nice report, thanks for sharing!

The third picture on the battle report was something of a collector's item, I can't remember ever seeing a nail-varnished fingernail on this site before. It would be great if more ladies got involved with our hobby, it seems to be very much a male preserve so this is refreshing to see!

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Bad luck with that first assault! Interesting to hear your thoughts on the EC, will have to give them a run myself. Thanks for the report!

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http://hordesofthings.blogspot.co.nz/

Glad you liked the report! I'll see what I can do about showing off my manicure in future battle reports, maybe even do a fashion show

In all seriousness, I've been primarily learning at the knees of Dave and captPiett for almost 2 years now, and they're great teachers. It's been a long trip of attempting to approach their caliber of play, as well as that of the others in our extended play group, and I feel that I've reached a point where I can start giving back, and I know (almost) enough to form a proper opinion about stuff.

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--Ruth

Night Lords Sub-AC

Night Lords Painting Blog