Militarum Equester - A play through of the new supplement!

For those that have not been following this, I have been working on miniatures and rules for a Rough Rider Army for some time now -The Macharian Thunder Guard! Today was the proud day when I finally got them onto the table and trialled my unofficial supplement codex rules with fellow gamer and blogger Liam (aka Frothing Muppet). Here is a few sneak preview shots of my home brewed codex.

The three main units in the list are Lancers (standard Death Riders), Hussars (Death Riders but kitted out with Veteran wargear), and Heavy Dragoons (Death Riders kitted out as Storm Troopers). The Orders and Warload traits are a mishmash of those from Militarum Tempestus and DKoK Assault Brigade with some home brewed ones included. To test them out they faced off against 1000 points of Orks that were very very pimped out. 

Here is the table set out pre deployment.

As Liam and I both blog, we usually start the game by taking a shot of each other for our post. So here is the Muppet. 

We rolled for warlord traits and I scored one of the best ones on my list! 

At least my men would have some cover before running down the Orks!!

Here is the right flank of my army. Two Troops of Lancers, a Command Troop and a Bettery of Lascannons pulled by horses. (I haven't made up the horse team and limbers for the cannons yet so a few standard horses were used in their place).

And the Left flank. A five man Dragoon Troop by the building and a Heavy Dragoon Squadron of a Troop and Command Troop. These guys are 'Storm Troopers' and have been fielded in a 'Platoon' just like you can for Scions. Alternatively, the Dragoons are basic Guard on horses (but fight on foot).

Here is the Ork Waaaagh! Seems like small numbers for 1000p but they had a lot of equipment and everything was in 'eavy armour. By the far hill there were also 3 killa kans. I had two Hussar (veteran) Troops to infiltrate. You can see one on the top right of this photo behind the tree. The other was deployed on the far right flank not far from the deffkoptas.

Turn one saw a mad charge forward toward the Ork line. The Lascannons fired on the kans and a Troop of Hussars send grenades at the deffkoptas but to no effect.

From behind the Command Troop.

The Cannons in the shade of a giant baobab tree.

The small troop of 5 Dragoons dismount to take up position in the ruins. 

The left flank.

Birds eye view (but of course in the game the battlefield has been carpeted in a covering smoke barrage).

One Troop of the Lancers rode forward at a lighting speed, breaking from the covering smoke to charge into the Warboss's Nob unit. -I had given them an order allowing them to run and charge. With an all heroic roll of 10" they just made it!

Little did they know that their valiant charge would be in vain! The Warboss and Nobs managed to shake off the lance blasts, pull the riders from their mounts and brake them with claws and oversized chain weapons. 

In reaction to the cavalry, the Orks advanced beating their chests and shooting wildly into the air.  

 Three deffkoptas fired and then swooped in to mash up the Heavy Dragoon Junior Officer and his men. The Dragoons steadied their horses to gun at the koptas as they hovered in low. A final toss of Krak grenades sent the three Ork fly boys to a fiery end. -It seemed who ever charged was coming out second best!

After waiting for the right moment (infiltrators can't charge in turn 1) the shotgun toting Hussars galloped from their hiding place towards the kans with melta charges primed and ready. One Hassar was downed on the way in but the remaining four rounded on the kans, clamped their charged in place and darted away as the three kans exploded into scrap metal. 

 After the ill fated first charge, the cavalry Captain ordered the second charge and the Warboss and Nobs found themselves caught in a mouth of pointy lance teath!  

The fighting was fast, frantic, bloody and brutal. Only two Nobs, the mighty Warboss and the Captain were left alive! The Captain reared his horse and broke from the combat to recharge his foe. (He had Hit and Run).

Meanwhile, far on the left flank the Huassars and Heavy Dragoons fired on and run though the Orks. Working from one squad to the next they began to clear the left flank.

 Back on the right flank, the mighty Warboss roared a mighty "Waaaagh!" and ran at the Hussars ripping and crushing them into a bloody undistinguishable mess of meat and bone. 

The last two enraged Nobs intercepted the Capitan. He managed to lay one low with a bolter round and dealt the other a crushing wound with his power mace. Unfortunately Orks are notoriously hard to kill and the injured Nob pulled the Captain from his horse and worked at him with his wailing saw.  

 With the Warboss distracted, the left flank Hussars ran unchecked thought the Ork back line, grenading helpless Grots as they scurry about screeching while the Heavy Dragoons made light work of the last of the Ork Boys.

The Warboss angrily eyeballed the riders from a distance realising that his army had been reduced to a single wounded Nob. As lascannon beams struck around him he snarled savagely and stomped off away from the victorious men of the Militarum Equester. Their losses were heavy but the field had been won.

Rule Review

After a debrief, I have a few alterations and adjustments for my supplement. The orders that I had adapted from the Militarum Tempestus supplement were a little too powerful for this list. The Heavy Dragoons (Storm Troopers) ended up being too good. They were very very expensive, but were fast in the movement phase, powerful in the shooting phase and could hold their own in close combat. Their assault capability came from firstly the orders and secondly from having a pistol and close combat weapon as well as 2 Attacks standard (as Death Riders do). I'll drop the 2 Attacks to 1 and with the change to the orders this should pull them back into line. Liam noted that this list lacked 'basic' troops. It is worth mentioning that the Militarum Equester was meant to be an 'elite' army such as the Militarum Tempestus, but it is also true that the list that I ran included only 5 of the more 'basic' Dragoons. These guys didn't really see action, but I'll build a few more for our next game which should round off the force a little better. I also had options to field Heavy Mortars, Quad Launchers and Rapier Laser Destroyers (pulled by horse teams) in the army, so I'll try them out next time along with a few special characters that I included. All in all the rules were not a failure but some tweaking is still needed. 

Because some of the rules are replications of the 40k codex's (Astra Militarum, Militarum Tempestus and DKoK) I am hesitant to post them here in their entity. If any of my fellow bloggers would like to look over them however, feel free to drop me a private email at: colonel 'dot' ackland 'at' adam 'dot' com 'dot' au

Tallyho!