Beginner’s Luck? Votann vs Imperial Knights in a One-Hour Smash
A very fast battle report
Sometimes a game turns into a long tactical grind, and sometimes it becomes a glorious one-hour disaster for the other side. This was definitely the second kind.
end3r took his Leagues of Votann into a game of Combat Patrol against Imperial Knights, and the whole thing lasted a bit over an hour. What makes it even better is that this was only his third Combat Patrol game ever.
His opponent showed up with two Knights and, after hearing that end3r was still very fresh to the format, apparently decided to go all-in immediately. Fair enough — if you bring giant stompy robots, you probably want to use them.
The problem was that Votann shoot really well, and on that day the dice were absolutely unhinged.
“I had the best rolls of my life.”
And by “good rolls”, we mean the kind of rolls that make everyone at the table laugh, groan, or question reality a little bit. According to end3r, he was averaging something like four sixes on six dice. One of those games.
Two Knights, two problems
The opposing force was simple but scary:
- two Imperial Knights
- each with 12 wounds
- one focused on shooting like crazy
- the other built to crush things in melee
At least, that was the plan.
As end3r very accurately summed it up: if the rolls don’t go your way, then suddenly they don’t hit anything and the giant war machines start looking a lot less terrifying.
How the game went
The Knights came in aggressively, trying to capitalize on the experience gap and put pressure on early. But the Votann guns did what Votann guns do.
By turn 2, one Knight was already gone.
By turn 3, the second one followed.
And once the points were counted, the final score was a brutal:
74 - 10 for Votann
That is not just a win — that is the kind of result you keep bringing up for a while.
The real lesson here
We love this kind of game because it captures a lot of what makes Warhammer fun:
- a newer player getting thrown into a tough matchup,
- an opponent trying to press the advantage,
- absurdly hot dice,
- and a pair of giant robots getting shot off the table anyway.
Sure, the dice clearly had a story to tell here, but it is also a nice reminder that Votann can punish mistakes hard, especially when the shooting starts connecting.
Photos from the game
Final thoughts
Huge congrats to end3r for pulling off such a savage result in only his third Combat Patrol game. Beating Imperial Knights with a scoreline like that is already funny. Doing it in just over an hour makes it even better.
And honestly, we also appreciate the most important tactical insight from the whole report:
Knights are terrifying. Unless they miss.
Then they’re just very expensive scenery.