March 2026 Day of Games
This past weekend, I had the opportunity to get a couple games at Biggs’ Strategium. I mentioned Biggs in a previous post, but I am not sure if I have described his set-up here. Biggs has more gaming space than most gaming stores I have seen, and certainly more than any German gaming store I have ever been in. This time, we only had three players, so we had plenty of room to spread out. It worked out fine because I really wanted to get back into the groove with my Thousand Sons for the Adepticon Heresy Doubles event next month. The plan was to play a couple 3k games, which we did; however, I was the buddy in both games so ran 1500 points each time.
Chris’ Imperial Knights with Militia Allies v Biggs’ Blood Angels (and me)
I knew Chris was bringing a Knights Army, so I spent quite a bit of time trying to create a 3k list I thought could handle Knights. We realized last minute that it would just be the three of us, so I pared my list down to two separate lists - one focused on Knights, and one a bit more along the lines of a “normal” list I would take at 1500 points. For this game, we chose to play Blood Feud from the Betrayal Mission Pack. (Note: The link takes you to the page with the six missions from that book, updated for 3rd ed). This mission is pretty straight forward, it is all about kill points.
This game was a blast! Playing a kill point game, rather than one of the Black Book progressive scoring missions really evened the odds for Chris’ army. He did have a couple Militia Levy squads, which Biggs and I mostly ignored for the first couple turns to try to kill the things that could most effectively kill us! Had it been an objective scoring mission, that would have changed our target priorities.
I kept books on this mission, which ended up leading to us counting points at the end of the game three times. And the game itself was decided by one point! In future, I would do a better job of record keeping, but I am just so used to keeping track of objective scoring missions and making the odd note for secondaries. In this game, you need to know what unit was killed because each unit is worth a different amount of points. I love progressive objective scoring missions, and I have long said that. However, it does get a bit old if that is all you end up playing. But if you are someone complaining about that, stop complaining and find over a dozen 3rd edition missions on this blog alone! And there are other sources of missions as well…
As a bit of an AAR, I took a number of one-shot tanks in this game. I hate one-shot tanks! However, I decided to give them a shot for this game. I think my Laser Vindicator finally damaged something in Turn 4. Between misses, not rolling pens, or Chris making his invulnerability saves, I couldn’t get anything through. My Melta Predator was largely the same. The most consistent way to kill vehicles (including knights) is to get some power fists into combat. Luckily, my Predator and Vindicator are both magnetized so I am not tied to those loadouts.
After recommendations from a friend, I am going to talk a bit about my Thousand Sons list:
Praetor running with a Breacher Squad in the Rhino. A Biomancy Librarian was also with this squad.
Centurion (Paragon of Battle) with dual Lightning Claws in a squad of Praetorian Command Squad with Jump Packs.
Predator with Magna-melta Cannon, Lascannon sponsons, Multi-Melta, and HKM.
Laser Destroyer Vindicator with HKM.
Contemptor-Osiron with Multi-Melta, Grav, and Telekinesis.
I won’t get too much various arcanas I used. It wasn’t terribly relevant in this game. The Centurion had Melta Bombs and the Command Squad had a Thunder Hammer and two Power Fists. Like I said before, the tanks didn’t do much. I was convinced my Dreadnought would kill a Knight between shooting, volley fire, and combat. The Knight was even statused, so going at Initiative 1. However, I didn’t get all his hull points off him, and he minced my Dread with a Damage 6 weapon! Only one unsaved invul would have killed him. I believe it was the one time my Vindicator actually hurt anything, that took the final wounds off that Knight in Turn 4. I cannot recommend using these sort of low-shot weapons against Armour 13 and 14 vehicles unless you are prepared to be often disappointed. One of my friends discussed taking more to be effective, but I don’t want to invest more in disappointment. In a game against Knights, you can’t really ignore them altogether. But in a game against Space Marines, you can ignore a Land Raider. I am planning to take my Volkite Predator to Adepticon. For 130 points, I get up to 16 Volkite shots (8 of which are D2), a pintle Heavy Bolter, and a HKM. That’s still less than the cost of a base Vindicator (no Las)! It fills a different role, but still provides the hardiness of a 3rd edition tank. I do want to try the standard Vindicator with the Demolisher Cannon. It is blast 3”, so even if it “misses” it still will hit the target most of the time.
If you are wondering about the Praetor/Breacher/Librarian squad, they stayed in their Rhino for most of the game. There were several possible victory points to give up in that one squad. Considering the game was decided by one point, I am going to say that was the right call!
Biggs’ Blood Angels v Chris’ Imperial Knights (and me)
In our second game, we played Shatterstrike, another classic from the Betrayal Mission Pack. The aim of this mission is to score points at the end of the game with infantry units in your opponent’s deployment zone. This mission had automatic Night Fighting, so I created a rule for this edition. Essentially, shooting over 24” is done at snap shots turn 1. Sorry, Raven Guard, but this mission is in the Isstvan III pack, so they weren’t even there! What I failed to read before we started was the Fog of War rule that allows each side to redeploy one unit before the start of the game. That is a fun little wrinkle we missed out on.
Okay, so Biggs is working his Blood Angels up to 3k. I should mention, they are traitor Blood Angels! As our armies were lined up across from each other, I knew this was going to be a problem. Between Chris and I, I was the only one that had infantry. And a good majority of Biggs’ army has jump packs and is melee-focused. So, I somehow needed to get my infantry past his without getting into combat.
Chris and I went first. I thought that I could possibly Pin one of his units with my Breacher Squad’s grav guns Turn 1. So, I disembarked them from their Rhino. I did force the pinning check, and we forced a couple other status checks Turn 1, but he passed them all! Considering the prospect of winning the game, it was all downhill from there. As a fun game, it had so much to offer! Biggs killed some things. We killed some things. We only got to play 3 Turns due to time, but it was a great game.
Going into Turn 3, Biggs was winning on secondary objectives as he had scored three of four by that point and we had scored none of ‘em! He also completely forgot to automatically bring in his combi-melta Veteran Tactical Drop Pod squad on Turn 2. So, one of Chris’ Knights got to live for an entire extra turn. Off the top of my head, that is probably about a 350 point unit, but it comes in and deletes a 400-500 point Knight in one turn. And in this mission, it scores at the end of the game. It also scores an extra point due to Line (1). At the end of Turn 3, it was the only Infantry unit in our deployment zone. However, he certainly could have had one or two more in by Turn 4.
Chris was a great partner to play with, but Knights were not at all suited to this mission. However, it is useful to play through the various missions to get a full understanding of that. Too many people look at rules and missions and feel like they know how things will play on the table (I have been guilty). However, experience shows that you really have to get on the table to see how things play out. I would certainly be curious to see how my full 3k would do against Biggs in this mission. Going into the weekend, I was more interested in the challenge of Chris’ Knights list. In the end, Biggs army was really good. I felt under pressure from the very beginning, and it is going to be really scary when he gets more reps with it.
I wouldn’t normally take a second list for a weekender, but the lists I was playing against were polar opposites. It would have been funny to run my tanks against Biggs. They might have done better in the end!
Tartaros Praetor running with a Tartaros Command Squad.
Centurion (Paragon of Battle) with dual Lightning Claws in a squad of Praetorian Command Squad with Jump Packs.
Breacher Squad in the Rhino. A Biomancy Librarian was also with this squad.
Tactical Squad.
Contemptor-Osiron with Multi-Melta, Grav, and Telekinesis.
As mentioned previously, the aim of the mission was to get your infantry to the other side of the board alive by the end of the game. I mentioned the strategy I attempted. In retrospect, perhaps I should have attempted to get my Rhino to the other side of the board with the unit in it. However, he did have a jump squad with a bunch that probably would have ended up power fisting my Rhino to death Turn 1 or 2 (at most). Biggs and I have discussed spending more time playtesting these missions, so there might be a chance we get to run this one again!
Conclusion
Biggs and the Strategium are just under 90 minutes drive from me. Nevertheless, it has become what I refer to as my “local group” when I talk to my friends outside of Germany. As I get more time there, that is something that feels better and better. Biggs and his wife are amazing hosts and every game I have had there with every opponent has always been a blast. After I get back from Adepticon, we have some things planned for April. So, I am super excited for that! I will get to see some visiting friends I have met and played before, and I will get to make some new friends as well! Naturally, I will keep you posted on my adventures here.
In the meantime, you can check me out Instagram or Facebook!
