Warhammer 40k Blood Angels Battle Report: Blood Angels vs Salamanders

On December 22, 2008 Lord Dante caught word of Vulkan who was excavating some Xenos world for alien technology to improve his twin-linked flamers. Dante needed to challenge this afrontery personally since he was in the area, and Vulkan decided he would have this alien power at any cost. Well this day that cost was measured.

Blood Angels vs Salamanders
1750 points
Kill Points
Dawn of War

I used my new standard force, with assault squads and DC in rhinos with Corbs and Dante, supported by a Speeder, Vindi, Baal, Attack Bike and 2 Furiso Dreads. My buddy Ed used his new Drop Pod Salamander army. Vulkan, 4 Ironclad Dreads, a squad of Vets joined to Vulkan, two Tacticals and a Techmarine with Thunder hammer.

Ed is a great player, and always has a strong list. He is also a great modeler and painter. Always a pleasure to play him. Unfortunately for him, he doesnt have a lot of experience with 5th edition, and I apologized to him before the game started because he was about to see the new tactics.

We roll off and of course I fail to win first turn choice. He grants me to first go. I select my side, which had a nice terrain piece which blocks line of sight in the back corner, then I RESERVE EVERYTHING. The defense against all drop pod armies is to reserve every unit. With Drop Pod Assault, half of his pods come down turn 1 with nothing to shoot at. This will leave dreadnoughts stranded, and troops exposed as they will have little cover usually. This worked perfectly with Ed.

Turn 1:
I go first and reserve every thing.
Ed is forced to deploy 4 drop pods. He chooses to drop his 4 Iron Clads into the middle of the board, evenly spaced and behind cover from my deployment edge.

Turn 2:
I go and my Speeder, Attack Bike, Vindicator, Tactical and an assault squad come on. I run my tactial into cover to get a good position to fire the Lascannon. The Vindi moves up behind a small wall to fire on dreads and pods, and the attack bike and speeder move in for opportune shots at pods with their Multis. The Vindicator lands a straight shot on a Dread, but I roll a 2 to wound and fail to pen its 13 armor. The fast attack both fire on a pod and destroy it earning me my first kill point.

On Ed's turn, only one more pod comes in for him. He drops it right in the middle of my terrain piece and deploys. His troops fire on my speeder, knocking off its melta and stunning it. There are no assaults yet. The score is 1 KP for me to 0 for Ed.

Turn 3:
Every thing else is in for me except for my Baal. The Speeder moves 24 to get out of trouble. The bike also moves 24 to try to flank the other Iron Clads and keep them where I want them. I move up my rhinos and here is where the game gets fun for me. Being Fast Vehicles they can move 18", and his tactical squad that came out of the drop pod was in range, so I TANK SHOCKED him twice! The first TS he makes his leadership and decided to Death or Glory with his Techmarine. Bad choice. It was actually not a bad choice because he had a Thunder Hammer, but he failed to wound beyond stun, and that became shaken with my extra armor. VS Death or Glory the defender must Stun, Imobo or destroy the tank to stop it. He failed, so he lost the Techmarine. His marines moved back to get out of the way. With my second TS I hit them again. This time he chose DoG with his Meltagun. Again it was an auto hit against my front armor 11. Sadly he rolled a 3 on the glance chart. That became a 1 due to glance, which became a 2 due to the +1 melta shot, which was reduced to a 1 again with my extra armor. The melta guy died, and they were forced to move again. This killed his threats in this squad, pushed them back from my armor forcing him to assault my transports with guys inside if he chose, and put a hurting on his overall morale! And I hadnt fired a shot this turn... In the shooting I move my Dreads up behind the rhinos that TS. All of my troops that were in rhinos stayed embarked. The Lascannon fired on a pod and knocked the gun off and the Vindicator knocked the gun off another. Curse my supernatural ability to roll 1's and 2's. My turn ended since I had nothing to assault with yet.

On Ed's turn another pod, with Vets and Vulkan came down. He dropped them right in front of my Vindicator. They disembarked and killed all but the Lascannon marine from my Tactical with their first volley of shots and flame. Dante was angered. Most of those men were friends. Lads Dante had known since their induction into the ranks of the Blood Angels from Baal Prime. He would suffer not this scorn. Ed's squad that suffered the TS moved back and fired bolters at my speeder but only 4 were in range and only 1 glanced, I made my cover save. Nothing could assault so turn 3 ended.

BA 1, Sal 0

Turn 4:
This turn would see some bloodshed. Dante, nearly engulfed by the Black Rage at the sight of all his dead battle brothers ordered the Vindicator to move and fire point black into Vulkan's squad. He moved to assault immediately, while the Baal came up behind to lend support fire. None shall survive. Assault marines deployed from their rhinos to assault the first tactical squad and the Furioso dreads moved up to counter charge his Iron Clads who had moved into assault range this turn. The speeder moved to safety again while the attack bike took a shot at a pod and missed. The Lascannon marine ran and embarked into the Veteran squads rhino that they left empty for them. He would spend the rest of the battle lamenting the loss of his entire squad. He earned a purity seal for surviving. Coordinating the ordinance blast from the Vindicators demolisher cannon, Dante ordered the commander to fire. The shot landed true, the blast seared the dust from Dante's artificer armor. I rolled 11 wounds, one for each member of the squad including Vulkan. 10 died instantly in the blast, and Vulkan, looking to Dante for forgiveness as he saw the error of his ways, turned to ash when his Iron Halo failed to save him. Sorry Vulkan, there is no forgiveness, there is only the Emperor. You have been vindicated. With the infantry dead, Dante and the Baal fired on their pod but failed to destroy it. In the assault my troops assaulted and killed all but one of his other tactical squad, losing 3 battle brothers in the process. He failed leadership and escaped me, but I consolidated close to him.

On Ed's turn, his last pod wold come in right in the middle of my back ranks. He opened up on my speeder, again, with his squad, and this time killed it. His Clads moved up and opened fire. One on my assault squad chasing his last man, and one on a rhino. They killed 2 marines and knocked the gun off the rhino. In the assault, only the one that shot the Rhino could get in because I pulled off the marines in reach of the other. It assaulted and exploded my rhino, earning Ed's second kill point.

Blood Angels 3kp, Salamanders 2kp.

Turn 5:
I went for the killing blow on this turn, expecting to roll a 1 at the end and finish the game. I disembarked the DC to assault his last infantry squad that just killed the speeder. Corbs stayed inside the Rhino, which moved to support the assaults with his Furious Charge. Dante also moved to support the assaults with his preferred enemy and death mask. My bike would move and fire on another pod, failing to hurt it. The Vindicator fired on a pod, destroying it and the Baal would fire on the last infantry squad, killing a couple. In the assault, each of my Furioso would pick an IronClad and face off. They each rolled +3 attacks, for a total of 7 on the charge. Sadly for Ed they got Preferred Enemy AND Furious Charge. That let them go first and reroll misses. One IC exploded and the other had its Hammer ripped off and was stunned. My tactical squad assaulted the last of the marines and lost combat, but did not break. The DC assaulted his other squad, killing a couple but not overwhelming them. I suffered no losses.

Ed would have little luck on his turn. He shot little and killed nothing. In the assault, his other IC would die, and his infantry would fall back from the attack of the Death Company. I let them go, knowing I would wipe them out next turn with Furioso, Dante, corbs and DC if I had to.

End of turn 5:
Blood Angels 6kp, Salamanders 2
Time to roll the die... result? A 2. Of course. :) Game ends, victory for the Blood Angels.

MVP of the game for the BA? Vindicator. Its point blank shot right on Vulkan and his Vets, killing them all, was a devastating blow.
MVP for Salamders? Drop Pod assault. His last 3 pods coming in right in the middle of my ranks really changed my strategy. Sadly their passengers would almost all die immediately, but they could have seriously changed the game.

I felt bad for mowing down Ed's guys like that, especially when I assaulted and destroyed his Dreads with them unable to get in a shot. But thats what happens when you enter the maw of the beast! The new marine codex has allowed marines to field a mere shadow of the might that is the Furioso Dreadnought. But they arent quite there. That extra d3 attacks makes a BIG difference!

I will have to keep them in the list... for now.

Warhammer 40k Blood Angels: More Puddin Battle Report

Last night I played a 1750 game at the Battle for Salvation against club member Charly. First of all, Charly is a great guy who just had a little girl, so I wanted to offer congratulations to him! But also, he is really smart, and very good at writing up his army lists. He is a good player and any game against him is going to be hard fought. If any thing, playing against him will improve how you play!

So when I got to the club, which I only do about once a month, he was looking for an opponent so I found myself up against his new codex marine army. His force:

Khan
Shrike
Land Raider Redeemer x2
Assault Squad
Command squad with apoth etc.
Terminator squad.
10 man scouts x2

My army:
Dante
Corbs
Honor Guard, banner, PW, PF NO JUMP PACKS
Assault squad rhino
assault squad rhino
Tac squad x10 Las
Speeder with Melta, Flamer, Missles
Attack bike
Baal Pred
Vindicator
Furioso death company dreads
Death Co. x4

Mission:
Kill Points, Table corners

Charly won the roll and gave me first turn. I deploy my tac squad in the top of a 5 story tower terrain, and reserved the rest. Charly saw me reserve everythign, and did the same to stop me from popping free shots at his LRs with the Las.

Turn One:
Dante, Corbs, DC, HG, assault squads and Vindicator all came in. Not what I had in mind. I was under the mistaken impression that I could pop more then one squad into a rhino. Charly pointed it out to me that I was wrong and after confirming, I decided to disembark the assault squads, the embark the HG and DC with Corbs. I did not move them up however, I deployed every thing in the opposite corner from my Tac. The Tac was in the far left corner.

Charly was able to bring in 1 scout squad, and a LR with Terminators inside. The Scouts flanked in next to my Tacs, and the LR moved up and shot its Assault Cannon at the Tacs, and killed 2. End turn one

Turn Two:
The rest of my stuff came in. Drat. I deploy my Baal next to my Tacs to kill the scouts. I deployed the speeder and bike in the middle to keep Charly at bay with his land raiders They were behind cover. I lit up a scout squad, with the Baal and Tacs, but only killed 6. The rest of my guys in the other corner would just turtle up and hunker down. If charly wanted to get at them, he would have to come and get em. This was gona be a battle between my Tacs, Baal and fast attack and his scouts...

For him, the other scouts came on, shrike as well. The scouts came in next to the first, and shrike came in on the edge near my forces, and he hid behind cover. He would stay there the rest of the game, knowing that if he popped out, he would take a Vindicator shot. The scouts assaulted my Baal with Fists, but only stunned it. I was able to move it out of danger next turn. Lucky me.

Turn Three:
I shot up the first scout squad again, but two still survived. I popped a shot at a land raider with the Las and failed to glance.

He Pulled back his scouts and spread them out, then moved his two survivors from the first squad into cover below my Tac. His other LR came on, and they fired at my Tacs but failed to kill any.

Turn Four:
I fired my speeder and bike at his two remaining scouts, and killed one. So, I unloaded my Baal at the last survivor, wounding him 10 times! Charly made 10 4+ cover saves. The dice gods favor him. He lived to turn 5.

On his turn, he would move and fire his LRs on my Tacs again, but fail to kill. He stowed away his second scout squad behind cover, due to poor rolling was unable to get his last scout from line of sight.

Turn Five:
I unloaded on his last scout and killed him earning a Kill Point.

He moved his LRs up on my speeder, and fired two assault cannons at it, but failed to destroy. At the end of turn 5 the score was Jawaballs 1KP and Charly 0kp. The die was rolled to end at turn 5 and whammo, a 1! The game ended with me getting the victory!

Summary:
Armies like Charlies are simply too strong to stand against for armies like mine. Mine is VERY good at assault if they charge. The problem is that with all these "Grant the entire army godliness" rules in the new Codex, his army was better, so every one will do what I did and simply reserve things to weather the Flank Marchs, fleet assaults from Land Raiders and other stuff. I know, Dante and Corbs grant guys Preferred Enemy and Furious Charge, but you at least have to be within 12" of them and they have to be on the table. Charlies scouts came on and got to fleet and Shrike was still on his strike cruiser. At best these commanders should have to be on the table for every model to get the advantage. (Like Dante's leadership) In the end, the record is Blood Angels 5, New Codex Marines 1 for games I have played. While I was able to win a couple of slug fests, as NCM players refine their lists, I will have to refine my own, and sadly it will force me away from my beloved assaulters using overwhelming force and make me rely on speedy tactics instead. For the Emperor, and Sanguinius.

Warhammer 40k: Blood Angels, The Proof is in the Puddin

Ok, many things about 5th edition 40k have become clear to me in playing with Fritz and his Saim Hann army. First of all, no matter how badass assaulty I make my Blood Angels, "Generic" marines can do it better and cheaper. Thats a fact. I will not be able to compete in a slugfest with armies made using the new codex, at least until they make some of those options available to the Blood Angels. Who cares if I can field veteran squads as elites. Pedro allows marines to field veterans, with better guns, as TROOPS that can assault out of drop pods. The list goes on and on.

So in the coming months I will be revamping my Blood Angels to deal with this. It is my belief that I can put together a Blood Angels army that can tie or win the majority of its games in 5th edition. Be watching as I update and rebuild my army... again. :)

Warhammer 40k Blood Angels: Baal Predator Tactics

Ok, well, Blood Angels are known for their fast attack and furious assaults. SO, when answering the questions concerning what sort of armour should a Blood Angels army include... there is really only one answer. It is NOT the Land Raider. In my opinion Land Raiders have nothing to do with Blood Angels what so ever. They are slow, big and clunky. No my friends, the choice is simple. The Baal Predator. Allow me to introduce, again, this marvel of Blood Angels technology.

First of all, The Baal is a tank based on the Predator design of Space Marine tanks that only the Blood Angels have access to. It comes with a Turret Mounted, Twin Linked assault cannon. It has weapon options too. It make add a Storm Bolter, and side sponson weapons. Heavy Flamers, or Heavy Bolters. It may also add a Hunter Killer Missle. The fire power that this tank can lay down is tremendous! When taking the Heavy Bolters, and Storm Bolter options, you can pump out 12 shots at a target. I once used my ball against a squad of Guardians with a Warlock, and killed the entire squad, except for the Warlock who made his invul save. (and then killed the Baal with his Singing spear but that is another story) The fact that is almost all non power armor models will be denied armor saves against the Baal Preds guns. Its a great Ork Killer! The assault cannon is str 6 and the heavy bolers are str 5, so they will most likely wound as well. Add the missle launcher and you can drop a small template, increasing the wounds by as many as you can hit... could be 10+ if they are packed. That could be 22 wounds dealt by the tank. No one expects that kind of fire power that does not play against BA regularly so do not hesitate to unleash that hell whenever you can.

Another suprising aspect of the BP is that it is a Fast Vehicle on a roll of 4+. That means that the BP may move a maximum speed of 18", may move 12 and stil fire a gun, and may move 6" and still fire ALL of its guns. Yes, that's right... the BP may move from behind a wall, and fire off every gun it has at an unsuspecting squad hiding behind cover. Without a doubt, every opponent you play will gasp at the pure torrent of fire the BP will unleash, and be prepared to read the rules to them, several times. Keep that ace in your pocket for when you need it most... meaning, dont use the fast vehicle option until you have a whole squad under your guns, and out of cover. Then light them up!

Other options:

It does not have much. It comes with a searchlight and smoke. Buy it Extra Armor, always. It will draw fire, and being able to reduce shakens to stuns will ensure that you can get away if you need to by moving 18 inches to safety.

How to use a Baal Predator:

It lacks the tank killing power of a LR or Pred Anhialator. It is NOT a tank killer, dont even try to waste your Assault Cannon shots hoping to get lucky. It might be ok at popping armor 10 vehicles, but to fire on them is a waste of this machines power. The exception, is squads of speeders. If you can get a squad of 3 speeders under your guns, take the chance. Especially since they will probably have meltaguns and will zap the BP next turn any way. Your Assault Cannons can hurt them on 4s and rend, while your heavy bolters can hurt on 5s and the storm bolter on 6s.

The main purpose of the BP is to work as infantry or armor support. Using it together with a Vindicator is devastating. Or, use it as a tank killing group by teaming it with an attack bike with Multi Melta. The bike can move up behind the BP, free of Line of Sight. At the last minute, the bike pops out from behind the BP moving 12", then fires its multi melta at tanks within 12", getting a Str 8, ap 2 shot +2d6. Yup, the attack bike has a TWO FOOT threat range to knock out any tank in the game with ease. This 50 point model makes the Baal Pred that much more devastating.

Heavy Flamer sponsons? I don't suggest them. It will be rare indeed that you get the chance to lay one of them onto a squad, even more rare that you get to use two... that means you are wasting a sponson. You can move that thing up 12" and drop the HF template on a squad, but a land speeder is better at that by far. Dont bother.

Speaking of Land Speeders, if you want to seriously make a trio of death, take the above mentioned Tank Killer combo of BP and AB, then add a Land Speeder with Multi Melta, Heavy Flamer and Typhoon Missle Launcher! (yes you can add all 3) Use the BP as moving cover and move the fast attack up behind it to leap out and strike. They have speed, fire power, and when used properly are simply devastating to mech infantry and armored companies. Use the attack bike to pop a Chimera full of pesky Karskrin, then light them up with the BP and Speeder!

Don't leave your Baal isolated. Its strength is in its support factor. Keep it with advancing assault troops, or foot slogging Tacticals. It's versatile speed make it able to support either type of infantry equally.

So there you go! Don't be afraid to play the Baal Pred. Combine it with Fast Attack fire power, and supporting infantry, and you have a huge mobile fire base. Use its smoke launchers to get from cover to cover, and tandem it with a Furioso Dread to truely scare the crap out of your opponent. Have fun!

Happy Turkey Day

Happy Thanksgiving every one. :)

Warhammer 40k: Questions

Here is a question from a subscriber to my Youtube videos:

Re: Re: Which to choose Well now that im set up i kind of know what army style i want.... i want a hit and run style with speed bikes and fall back to were there is heavy guns, i was wondering if this tactic would work at all?

Answer:

It seems that in 5th edition that tactic works great, especially in "Kill Point" missions. Take attack bikes and skimmers and some long range fire support. Zap some squads to take a lead in Kill Points, then turbo boost yourself all over the place and stay out of range! Its cheezy, but it works, and won Fritz and Myself a doubles tournament. Frankly I would rather face an army that has a logical and decent list based on background fluff that uses cheeze tactics then a cheezed out list that just relies on exploits in the rules to win. (Ork armies with 2 nob bike squads and a warboss in each)

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Battle for Salvation Doubles November 22, 2008

On November 22, 2008, Fritz from Way of Saim Hann and Jawaballs teamed up to enter the Battle for Salvation 40 Doubles Tournament. We had been planning for months to do just that, but our plans were crushed just one week earlier at the Grand Tournament doubles. We arrived there with hopes of glory and loot only to be beaten badly in all 3 of our games. So we made changes, adjusted our list and rearranged our goals. We decided that we wanted to take Best Painted for sure, so set up our list to go for it. I played my Blood Angels and decided to put all of my very best painted models in the army, with little regard to army composition. I dropped all of my jump packs and remodeled my Assault, Death Company and Honor Guard squads. I dropped the Baal and took the Vindicator and I put in the Rhino. Two of my nicest models. I also went with my Attack Bike and Land Speeder. I dropped Dante and went with just Corbulo. Fritz went with his usual makeup, but went all jet bikes, seer council, vypers and prism cannon.

I our opinion, our army was weak and we were going to play for fun. We would face a lot of Ork Nob Bikers, cheezed out storm shield biker marines, and chaos lashes. Our pretty little army could stand little chance... could it???

Game 1:
BA and SH vs Orks and Daemons

This army scared us from the start. We were looking at two full boy squads with missles, big shooters and every thing else, a full squad of lootas, and a 6 or 7 man Nob Biker squad with Painboy and Warboss. The Daemons had two big walky thingies that look like mutated crabs, a huge daemon bitch, and several squads of deep striking daemons who had ap3 flamers! Gulp...

Our plan? Make them take the fight to us. We deployed our forces defensivly. We set up the Vindicator in cover where it had fireing solutions over 3 of the objecvtives, plus the far enemy edge. We put my tac squad right on an objective and the Vindicator was contesting one. We went first, and our first round of shots hurt. The vindicator lined up an ork boy squad that was not in cover, and killed 6. Then the vypers and my tacticals shot up the Lootas, killing all but 1! The orks took a beating! But we knew more were coming, lots more. On their turn, a gutsy Daemon player would deep strike right into the heart of our forces. He landed a squad of the mean bitches right next to my Vindicator. He landed his two mutated defilers as well, one landed close to us, and the other landed on top of a large ruined building. (this would turn out to be its salvation because it made cover saves against no less then 6 melta shots.) The big crabs fired and killed a few of my Tacticals with AP weapons, but that was all. The Daemons had no assault for turn 1 ended.

Turn two opened up with us pumping more shots into the orks, I landed another solid shot with the Vindicator killing 5 more, and we put the rest of our shots on the daemon squad trying to kill it. They had a homing beacon. After all of our shooting, one lived... :( The daemons were going to land in our midst. The Seer Council would assault one of the crabs and kill it. My Furioso advanced slowly through craters, right for the remaining lootas and nearby boys.

On their turn, they came down with some pain. A daemon squad with ap3 flamers dropped right on top of my honor guard, and torched 4 of them. Corbs and the power fist lived. The ork nob squad came on from reserves as well as another boy squad. ALl of their forces were in. Their remaining crab was having a tough time getting off the top floor of the building. But it was keeping it alive thanks to cover saves...my attack bike and speeder were unloading on it.

Turn three would see my Furioso get in range to cook the last of the lootas with his flamer. My death company, corbulo, and assault squad on foot would come in and wipe out all of the daemons in our line. The Vindicator would land it third straight shot, this time right on the ork nob squad, killing 3 of them including the warboss and painboy! You cant ask for more then that from a tank that is usually popped in turn 1. The Seer Council, flank around to line up the orks.

On the enemy turn, they popped my Furioso with a lucky missle shot, and advanced their remaining nobs to assault my Vindicator, popping its two guns. They would claim an objective with daemons and try to hunker down and hold.

Turn four would see us change gears. We were now going to attempt to prep for a turn 5 end. A bike squad was put in place to claim an objective, the seer council finished off the nobs. The speeder would ignore the crab an fire on the daemons to little effect. Corbs would lead the death company, power fist, and assault squad all up to climb into the rhino that was sitting in cover on an ojective, thus securing it. The enemy would forget that troops were inside on turn 5...

The orks advanced to make a run for an objective, and the other boy squad would try to hold the one they had. The daemons hunkered down in cover to keep theirs and the crab would finally make it down to the ground floor.

Turn Five would prove to be the last round. The Seer council shot up then assaulted the first ork boy squad, killing them all and rooting them out of an objective. The orks were left with just one boy squad. We sent a guardian biker squad to claim an objective, moved the speeder to contest against the daemons and dug in. At the end of our turn, we held 3, and contested 2. They held none and were in contest for one.

On theier turn, the orks would assault the guardian bikers and kill them to the last. They claimed the objective. Fritz should have moved his Prism tank up onto the objective as well, brain fart. But that would be all they could muster. The crab got out of the building, but failed to beat my speeder off their objective. The end of turn 5 would leave us in control of 2, contesting 2 and them in control of 1 and contesting 1. I would take the honor of rolling the die to end the game on turn 5... the result??? a single pip. a one. victory.

We scored 11 of 13 battle points in a game that we expected none. This would prove to be the trend of the day for us...

Next opponent: A space marine army made up of Pedro Cantor with terminators riding in a Prometheus tank, and Black Templars with their own Land Raider and lots of foot sloggers. We would be hard pressed to score any points in this game.

More to come...

New Blogs! Check out my two new blogs as I expand to other projects

Yup, you guessed it! I am working on two new projects. Vampire Counts and Iyanden Eldar. Here are the links:

Vampire Counts

Craftworld Iyanden

Enjoy!

Grand Tournament Summary

First of all, I want to say I had a great time at the GT and I learned a LOT about the game, most good, some bad. I will be posting a series of updates and posts this week, battle reports, praises and rants! First though, I will discuss Players Choice. It is something I need to get off my chest and be done with. I went to the GT with the goal of winning Players Choice. Yes, I know, lofty indeed. I had several things against me, first of all, my inexperience. It was my first GT! I didn't win of course, and yes, I was quite let down. But I learned several things. First of all, size doesnt matter. I painted a HUGE banner, and my brother and I made my case from wood. It was huge, clunky and heavy. It caught attention and pushed me into the upper realms of contention for PC, but in the end, the guy who won had a simple small display. Second, my terrain modeling sucks. My display looked half rate to the guy who won. His was simply beautiful. I will discuss his entry later.

To sum it up, I did a lot of politicing and hand shaking. But it wasnt forced, most of the guys I spoke to were truely good people and I was happy to have met them. I know for sure that I had at least 6 votes, and last year my buddy Matt won PC with 8. So I want to thank all of you who voted for me! I will try to do better next year.

On to next year. I discussed this with Fritz all the way home. (four hours) We planned out my entry for 2009 GT. Basicly, I am going to start from the display and work my way up. My preliminary idea is going to be the Invasion of the Iyanden Craft World by Hive Fleet Kraken. (was it bohemouth?) I will be painting my Iyanden of course. I plan on using LED, music and making it a truely interactive dislay complete with button activated sound effects and animatronic action. I will probably start a new blog to chronicle this endeavour. More to come!

I am working on battle reports and other stuff. Stay tuned.

Update from Grand Tournament

Well, it is the morning of day 2 of the Grand Tournament in Baltimore. Friday night, Fritz and I got rocked in the doubles tournament. It seens our egos were bigger then our guns. But we learned a lot! In the first day of the tournament, I did'nt do too bad. I scored 10 out of 20 battle points in game one with a draw down the middle from a game that ended on turn 5. Had the game gone another turn, it would have been mine. Plus, the guy shot and killed a single marine holding an objective with his last shot of the game. Great game Dale! I scored 20 points in game two with a crushing victory over a competitor from Brothers Grim, and in game 3 I got rocked by an Ork army and scored 4 points. After 3 games, I have 34 battle points and Fritz has 40. I will post pics, video and full battle reports as I find time. I am optimistic about my chances for Players Choice and Best Appearence. Wish me luck! jawaballs

The Greatest Battle of All Time: BA/SH vs Nids/Chaos

So good ole Fitz and I teamed up in our last practice game for the GT doubles tournament last night against our two buds who will also be there. We crushed a large Ork Nob/boys army the other night, and last night we wanted to throw ourselves against what we considered to be one of the hardest opponents we will face.

Enemy:
Sorcerer with lash
10 noise marines,
3 olbiterators
2 rhinos
10 berzerkers
Winged Hive Tyrant with Devourers
3 full Genestealer squads
3 warriors with some gun and rending shots

Valiant forces:
Dante
Honor Guard with Banner, PW, PF, Flamer
RAS
DC x2
Furioso, DC, Ven, Dread with HF
Farseer jacked out
Seer Council of 5 or 6 Warlocks with Spears
5 man Jetbike squads x2


I think that was it.


So, deployment was Dawn of War, and 50% of the table. We won the roll and elected to let our opponent deploy first. The mission was loot counters which ended up placed in a diamond in the center of the board.

The game started out VERY badly for us. Fearing a LOT of shots turn one, we only deployed Dante and some bikes behind cover. We forgot about DoW. Enemy deployed with their oblits in one corner and the rest of their force in the middle or on the other side.

Turn One:
Enemy is unable to shoot at our squads. They move and brace. Our guys come on, most of them deploy on the weak side of the enemy, away from Oblit fire. This sadly left Dante and the 10 bikers alone on the right. Dante rallied them and infused them with the Blood of Sanguinius. While they wanted to flee, he convinced them to Charge for the glory of their ancestors. They leapt out of cover and went straight for the nearest squad of Stealers. Dante chose to run to get closer and did not fire his perdition pistol. The Eldar shots from the bikes failed to do any real damage. Dante frowned in dismay as only one Genestealer died in front of him. He was not leading marines it seams after all. On the left flank, the Farseer ordered the Blood Angels to engage the Stealers. She promised her councils support if the marines failed to reduce the stealers with pistol fire. Sadly only 2 stealers died while the marines lined up on the edge of the terrain that the bugs were hiding in. When they looked back to the Farseer for support where was she? Watching out for her own butt by attempting to take out the Hive Tyrant. Her mind war fizzled and their spears bounced off its thick hide. Now the Blood Angels were left to face a Stealer Charge and the Eldar were about to be charged by a pissed off Tyrant. In the assault, on the right side, the bikers manged to use the size of their vehicles to their advantage. They managed to get into assault against the stealers. But the one bike that got in crashed against some rocks in the terrain and died...(rolled a 1) The left flank forces were not in range for assaults so they simply had to brace for impact.


Turn 2:
The battle with the stealers on the right flank would start to turn really ugly. The Sorcerer would lash the bikers into a clump surrounding Dante. The stealers moved around to get out of the way. The oblits would fire all they could at Dante and his clustered and whimpering Xenos allies, they do fear the plasma. After all the shots the only wound was one against Dante himself. He stepped in front of a plasma shot to save an Eldars frail life. The Lord of the Blood Angels was wounded. The cluster would take some more shots from the nids. Dante suffered the indignity of his Artificer armor being pierced by a lowly tyranid weapon. Wounded twice and facing certain death, he let the Black Rage consume him. The tyrant fired at the Council killing one. The Enemy assault left the genestealers charging one of the bike squads on the right. Dante's Death Mask exerted its power over them, if nothing else giving the Eldar some confidence, a placebo effect. The assaulted squad managed to kill some of the nids but was killed. On the left flank, the Tyrant charged the Council and the stealers charged the BA RAS trying to knock out my troops squad. They had to assault through cover and that gave my boys a chance, but the Sgt. and 3 of his men fell leaving 4 stealers. The tyrant killed a couple of Warlocks and they wounded it in return. Our turn 2 shooting was minimal. Dante looked over his shoulder at the wide eyed and terrorized Eldar who remained and said to them "Men, these are the moments that make us great. These are the moments that distinguish us from mere mortals." He looked at one in particular and touched him on the shoulder, infusing him with the warmth of the Sanguinius. Clearly Dante thought he was speaking to his battle brothers 10 thousand years passed. He was caught up in the moment of the defense of Terra. He WAS Sanguinius. The Black Rage had taken him. With a nod to the bugs he ordered his men to finish this, then ignited his Jump Pack. Some rocks dislodged as he left the ground, but he did not faulter. He landed mere feet from the Noisemarines, and burned one with his Perdition Pistol. The remaining jetbikers, now led by the Blood Touched jetbiker basking in the glory of Sanguinius, fired on the Genestealers and prepared for assault. On the left flank, there was no shooting to be had. The Furioso Dread saw that he had to save the Farseer so moved to support and Veteran Ren of the Honor Guard realised that the RAS had the vital equipment needed to secure the objective. They assaulted the Stealers but were not quick enough to save the remaining RAS marine. The stealers died under their blades. The Furioso charged the Tyrant and popped it's with his powerful claws. Spattering green blood in the face of the Farseer who thanked him for her life. "It is my duty to protect the weak my lady." The Marine forces would massacre roll towards the enemy lines and the Eldar would fall back, of course. On the right side, Dante would charge the 10 Noisemarines. 6 died to the Axe of Mortalis, but sadly one of them managed to slip a blade through his armor. Dante lay still as the black rage washed over him and he assumed his well earned spot at the right of his Primarch in the battle of eternity. Spured on by their commanders valiant stand, the lowly jetbike guardians charged the genestealers. The battle would come down to 2 bikers and 2 stealers exchanging blows in an even fight. What a day when two Eldar can stand toe to toe with the mightiest of the Tyranid assault forces and call the fight even! It must have been the power of Sanguinius indeed.

Turn 3:
The 2nd left flank stealer squad that was held in reserve now charged for the Furioso. The warriors, seeing their Tyrant fall, moved in for the kill against the council trying to shoot them down. The remaining noise marines would move for an objective and the oblits would move to get into fireing position. The Berzerkers hiding in their Rhino moved back to attempt to claim an objective and the Sorcerer inside his rhino moved up, but his powers were thwarted by the Farseers runes. The nids killed off the last of the Warlocks with their shots. In the assault, the stealers had just enough reach to get into grips with the Furioso. They suffered 6 deaths but failed to scratch through his armor. The bikers locked with the stealers would all miss each other.

On our shooting the two Death Company moved to stand in front of the Farseer, seeing her as a glorious chaplain on a marine bike fighting for the defense of the Emperor. They would fire their pistols at the Nid Warriors then assault them. The HG moved up to assault the stealers who were on the Furioso. He stealers failed to wound it again, and then they died to the Vets swords. The Farseer found some minerals deep inside and decided to join the DC in the assault on the Warriors, the bugs would not last long.

Turn 4:

The HG and Furioso would advance to get into range for an assault the next turn. The obliterators fired at the Furioso and blasted his arm off. The Berzerks drove their rhino over an objective to claim it while the sorcerer was shut down again by the Eldar Runes. In the Enemy assault, the 2 stealers squared off against 2 bikers, each would claim a kill, leaving 1 vs 1. The warriors fell to the DC and Farseer, leaving her unengaged to move and the DC able to redirect and go for the sorcerer. The BA forces moved up to prep for the final assault against the berzerkers who were hiding in their transport. Sadly though, the Furioso's meltagun was now destroyed, they were not quite sure how they would pop that nutt open.

Turn 5:

The enemy shooting was minimal. The dread took some shots but suffered only a stun. The chaos forces were content to hide and fire their transports guns. The sorcerer was shut down by the Runes yet again and they seemed to think that they had the battle well in hand. They controlled 2 objectives, their last genestealer was about to kill the last of the Eldar troops, and the marines had no way to kill the berzerkers in their transport. In the assault, the last Genestealer fought against the last Eldar Biker, the one graced by the touch of Dante. The stealer hit him but his claws only raked a gash into the chasis of the bike. With his final gasp of strength, the biker managed to head butt the stealer, stunning him. The stealer would stumble and crack his head open on a rock... The victorious biker would take the opportunity to run and hide behind cover.

On our movement phase, the Farseer was inspired by Dante's faith in the Emperor. If only she could have faith in such as cause... any cause... "Why not let it be the Humans?" She ordered the marine forces to take and hold. The veterans moved up and contested the objective held by the cowering berzerkers. The Furioso and DC moved up to try to pry the sorcerer out of his shell. She turbo boosted her bike to contest the objective held by the noise marines, and yes, the valiant biker, glowing with the blood of Sanguinius, moved to take an objective. At the end of turn 5 we held an objective, and the two held by the enemy were contested.

The fate of the battle would fall to the hands of our enemy, and Chaos. With faith in the fact that the will of the Emperor protects, we asked The Warmaster to roll the die. With a snicker of glee, he tossed the cube into the air, letting it fall where it would. The result? a "2". The game would end at the end of turn 5. The combined Saim Hann and Blood Angel forces would snap VICTORY from the maw of Chaos.

This was the best game of 40k I have played yet. It was all around fun and ended with an epic climax! It looked like we were to be driven from the board in 3 turns and almost threw in the towel but decided to keep at it because we had a chance to tie. Well, this just goes to show that you never know. The Emperor Protects.

Battle Report: Blood Angels vs Saim Hann Seer Council

So Fritz and I played a game last night. I used my BA GT list, inlcluding my new Speeder and Attack Bike. Fritz used his Saim Hann force that he plans on playing at the GT. It was more of just a friendly game so we werent really focusing on killer strategy, but the short of it is that I completely cut him down like the lapdog he is. By turn 5 he had his Fire Prizm and 1 vyper. I had lost a Dev Combat Squad, my RAS and Dante (cheap mind war). We were playing Kill Points so the game was very much over. His mistake was to lead the charge with his seer council while protecting his bikes behind cover. He should have done the reverse. Provide me with a juicy target that I cannot pass up by putting his bike squads in range, and flank with his seer council. He left them in the open though, relying on his invul/cove saves. Sadly though I pumped a LOT of firepower into him, and when he is rolling 10 saves at a time, he is going to roll some 1's. By the time they got into assault, there was only 3 left. They used Mind war on Dante killing him, but the Honor Guard finished them off fairly easily, then went on to kill two more squads. Actually the HG was having trouble with the Farseer who was the last one, but then a squad of bikes jumped into the assault to try to save her. I wounded her, won combat, and they failed morale... The Farseer and the bikes were cut down. Fritz, never assault a Blood Angels Honor Guard with guardian bikers. So that was about it. My speeder spent most of the game stuned because Fritz tried franticly to knock it out. But finally it managed to get into range and it popped a transport with its melta. The attack bike sped all over the place as well, and zoomed into cover to pop a shot at a vyper and exploded it. Two Death Company charged a squad of Guardians hiding in a building and ate their livers with a nice Chianti. The dreads mopped up the Vypers. Fun game Fritz!

More Blood Angels pics: New land Speeder

Here is my new Speeder! I have to paint the base and the underside of it, I will try to get that done tonight. So Little time! I have barely started working on my display... My case is built and it looks fantastic, now I have to paint Blood Angels icons on it and some gold edging. My attack bike is justabout done too. So much to do! Keep watching, more to come.

Battle Report from DocRailgun

A frequent reader and content submitter played a game and submitted this battle report. Thanks Doc! Great stuff. Keep it coming, and next time send me some digipics so I can post them for you.

From DocRailgun:

Recently I played my Blood Angels in the last week of our league
against a Tau opponent I had played before.

My army:
A jump Chaplain with 4 Death Company
2 10-man Tactical Squads with flamers, plasma cannons, and power
weapons, both with Rhinos
a 10-man Assault squad with a power fist in a Rhino (no jump packs)
a DC Furioso
a MM Dreadnought
a Whirlwind
a Baal Predator w/ heavy bolter sponsons
an attack bike w/ a multimelta

The foul Xenos:
a commander in a crisis suit with two bodyguards
3 Fire Warrior squads
2 squads of Stealth suits
a large squad (20?, more?) Kroot and some Kroot Hounds
A squad of Sniper drones

We rolled Dawn of War (table halves) and one objective each. His
objective was placed in woods about 6-8 inches from the center line of
the board and about 8 inches from the edge. Mine was placed just
outside of a copse of trees in the opposite corner near my table edge.

I deployed my two tactical squads right on the edge of my deployment
zone near the Tau objective, the Tau deployed Fire Warriors some
distance back, his HQ unit near his objective, and his Kroot around my
objective.

The highlight of the game was at the beginning of the first turn, when
my CHaplain, DC and DC Furioso (which had 6 attacks that round)
charged the mass of Kroot and caused 15 wounds to 1 in return. The
Kroot ran and were cut down. I had thought that I was in trouble
there, as the terrain near my objective made it impossible for me to
deploy my assault squad on the first turn, but it turned out that I
didn't need them to combat the Kroot.

My plasma cannons and Whirlwind as usual made short work of the
enemies of the Emperor, especially the squishy non-mechanized Fire
Warriors. The Baal's massive firepower (especially combined with
overcharged engines) tore apart Stealth suit squads. My enemy spent
most of his early game trying to kill my empty (and mostly useless)
Rhinos while my plasma cannons whittled down his squads.

His last unit (the drones) made it on the board on turn 5, but were
charged by the packless Assault squad and wiped out. I controlled his
objective and contested my own with a Rhino. 7 brave Marines, one
Death Company brother-Marine and the attack bike died, while his
entire force fell.

Things I learned (but which I mostly already knew):
Tau like to shoot at fast-moving things. My Rhinos and attack bike
were prime targets, while my tactical squads that were doing all the
damage were mostly ignored early in the game.

Crisis suits should not get in close-combat, especially not with 10
Marines. One suit died to bolter fire, and the other two (including
his commander) died over two more rounds.

Overcharged engines are very useful, if only to be able to readjust
the Baal's facing to be able to bring all weapon systems to bear on a
target.

It is not important what individual models can do in close combat, but
what squads can do to other squads. A Dreadnought, 4 Marines and a
Chaplain wiped out a squad 4-6 times its own size because the Marines
didn't take many wounds (and had Feel No Pain). Certainly my side had
a lot of attacks, but so did the Kroot. I was able to make my 3+ saves
and they were not able to make their armor saves.

Seeming aggressive is as good as being aggressive. Two of my three
Rhinos spent all game being annoying trying to tank shock the Tau
units for no good reason (and never succeeded), yet they drew fire for
several turns away from my tactical squads which rained plasma death
on the enemy.

BS4 and templates mean lots of hits. This is important, as people seem
to be leaving the tanks at home, and even Marines don't like plasma
blasts.

Twin-linked assault cannons, two heavy bolters, and a pintle-mounted
bolter is a lot of firepower, especially when it can move 6" and still
alpha strike.

So, in closing... Blood Angels still rock, even without special
characters being allowed in a league. They're possibly even better in
a character-less environment than a number of other armies. My Marines
went 3-2-2 in their battles against the foes of Mankind.

Blood Angels at the 2008 Grand Tournament

So as you know I am playing my Blood Angels at the 2008 GT. My list has been posted here and discussed in depth, but I am making a change. I am removing the Vindicator and adding a Speeder with MultiMelta/Heavy Flamer and an Attack Bike with MM. The Vindicator has been underperforming and I think that the other two units will make my army much stronger. They will both have a gun that is even more likely to destroy tanks and wound Giant Bugs, And they both have mobility. They can zoom in and contest objectives. I am giving the speeder the missle launcher also. While it is not as good as the new SM codex one, it is still a template from 4 feet away. Like a mini Whirlwind. More to come on these... I will be playing them on Sunday and Monday.

This post is atually about my display and my efforts to claim Players Choice. I can care less about Best general or Best Overall. Those guys are going to be the power gaming uber army players. I'm not about that part of 40k, and will likely never win one of those awards. My sights are set on Best Appearence, and Players Choice. This is my first GT but I think I have a chance, and believe me, if I do not win, I will not be disappointed. Some of these guys have been doing this for decades, I have been doing it for a year and a half. I think Best Appearence voting is a little skewed. I think that the GW judges might be a little biased towards regulars that they recognize. Also, that one is determined by Battle Points in the case of a tie... :( So I dont have high hopes for that one, but I think where I might shine is Players Choice. This is picked entirely by the players, and their favor can be influenced. Here is what I have planned:

Life Size 2nd Company Banner
Fully painted and beautiful army with authentic squad markings and banners
Cool Display of a battle between the BA and some Orks who were routed.
A custom made wooden case. I wont get too much into details because im sure some guys who will be competing will be reading this, but it will include cool compartments and hand made and illustrated army lists... :)

My friend The Warmaster Black Matt won Players Choice last year and he had a fantastic display, but I think I can compete!

I know, the comptetition will be stiff and I have no disilusions of victory... but I think if I have a chance at any thing at the GT, it is Players Choice. I will be uploading pics right before the GT.

Blood Angels New Pics

More pics! More to come.

Brothers Grim Tournament battle report

October 19, 2008
Brothers Grim, Selden, NY

At this tournament I played 3 games, and finished 6 out of 12. The competition was VERY strong. Of all the players, I would easily say I was one of the least experienced. Most of the guys were VERY experienced guys who participated in 'ard boys tournaments. Most of the armies were marines, which is a sign of things to come.

Game 1: Orks Major Victory plus 3 points Blood Angels 2 points

At random, I was paired up against the guy who created Battle Wagon Bitz! He was a cool guy and a great player. His army, a huge Ork army with a killer Nob Squad all but rolled over my Blood Angels. I fired my entire army at his Nobs and didnt kill a single model! I only wounded one. Then I was short on the assault... ouch. By the end of turn two it was pretty much over. Dante, Honor Guard, Baal Pred, my dreads, pretty much every thing was knocked out. I gave him a fight though! My RAS ran for glory, and charged his Lootas on a far hill. I jumped them right into the thick of them, making their dangerous terrain test, then assaulted, killing the bunch of them. For a brief moment I held the hill... But they were wiped out the next turn. By the bottom of turn 5 I think I had knocked out 2 of his squads and all I had left was a 7 marine tac squad. The game ended with him earning a huge victory, but I still scored 2 points because I killed his heavy support, and he didnt have a fast attack.


Game 3: Nids. I won every battle point and objective.

This game was straight forward. The only defense I know of for Nids is to hunker down, using terrain to slow the advance. We placed terrain, and I set up one side to facilite that, then I won choice and got to pick my side. But alas, I forgot about flankers. I deployed Dante, his HG and the RAS close to a table edge. He brought in 2 squads of 8 Genestealers on that side, and one on the other side. The 16 stealers assaulted Dante, and the 2 squads. The HG would die entirely. Dante lived the first charge. Next turn, my DC came in though and I charged them in to save Dante. I would wipe out all of the stealers and have 4 RAS and 4 DC left but it was costly... Then more stealers came. Two more squads would eventually come in on that side and charge me. But heroicly, 2 of my RAS, and 2 DC would survive the assaults. Brother Corbulo was hanging outside the assault and saving lives. I was getting creative with hiding the rends. I managed to stack 4 rends on ONE GUY! That saved 2 other lives. The stealers who came in on the other side had to face at least an 18 inch charge down the barrel of my Baal's 12 shots. I cut them all down. The scary part was his main charge. He deployed a hive tyrant in the center of the board with a large squad of gaunts. The Tyrant had 3 body gaurds with 2 wounds each. He had 2 lichtors coming in and 3 carnifexs that were forced to charge from the opposite table egde unfortunately for him. I held my ground until he moved his gaunts, lichtor and Tyrant into range, then I moved up my dreads and flamers, doused them with Liquid Prometheum, then charged. None would survive. My dreads ran through the tyrant, but he took one down. The next one moved on to engage a carnifex. My DC would engage the other. The lichtor would die to flame. We called it mid turn 5. He had a fex falling back, one engaged with DC and 1 wound left, and one engaged with a Furioso. My tac squad was about to flame then charge his gaunts. He had no synapse left. It was a total rout.

I would eventually score enough points to place 6th overall.

The highlight of the day though was my Blood Angels winning Best Painted! The prize was a Drop Pod box set. Most of the armies looked very nice, but the best were unfinished. I had mine on display board and I even had my full sized banner for good measure. It doesnt count in the scoring, but that doesnt mean it wont influence judgement. :)

What about Fritz? He played Black Templars. He would go on to win 3rd overall, and 2nd place in painting... :) Sadly brother, any tournament you attend with me, you will always be second in... Hehe. Over all it was a great day and I cant wait for their next tournament.

Takes Qs...Kicks Ass... Question and Answer time.

Hi all. pastiepete from my Youtube subscribers sent me a great question about his army list. I thought I would copy and paste the Q and A here for all.

Question about SM.
I am some what new to the game, and yes i did order the BA dvd's on painting. I was just wandering what chapter is going to be good for 5th ed as SM goes?
I looked into 40k about 6mnths back and picked blood angels but was going to go and all out Assault army style.
Chaplin with jetpack
9x DC with jet packs
7x Vet ASS. with 3 PF
7x Vet ASS. with 3 PF
10x ASS. with PF
10x ASS. with PF
5x ASS. with PF
5x ASS. with PF
2x Baal with HB Spons.
54 marines 10 PF and 2 baal's
Was my Idea For 2000 pts and 56 models
But I am a noob in the art of 40k tactics and army building.

Answer:

I tried the all assault BA army, and it gets owned by any army with ranged stuff. First of all, drop the chaplain. Take Dante, always. Dante grants every model within 12" rerolls on every CC attack. Chaplain only grants it on the charge. With Dante's leadership 10, you wont need to worry about leadership tests for fearless. Also take Corbulo. He gives your guys Furious Charge which is KEY. He cannot wear a JP but thats ok, trade in one of your ASS jump packs for a rhino and attach him to that squad, move the rhino up behind your assault forces and they will get his Furious Charge. Drop the extra DC. Use those points to buy Land Speeders upgraded with Multi Meltas and Heavy Flamers. Try to get 2. You can drop one of the Baals to do so. Try to get an Attack Bike with Melta.

So....
Drop:
1 Baal
Chaplain
10x ASS with PF
5x ASS with PF
any extra Death Company

ADD:
1 Attack Bike Multi Melta
2 Speeders MM and Heavy Flamer
Extra Armor, Heavy Bolters and Storm Bolter on Baal
Dante
Corbulo
Rhino (xtra armor)
Tactical Squad 1
+5 Marines
Lascannon
Flamer
Tactical Squad 2
+5 Marines
Plasma Cannon
Flamer
WhirlWind

Play with the points to make it work. Drop more assault guys and add what you can. 3 powers in your VAS is overkill. Drop them down to 1. Instead of a VAS take an Honor Guard with Dante's Chapter Banner. Add flamers to your VAS/HG. Play defensive. Plop your Tac squads on objectives and fire their heavies. Use your ASS to support Dante his HG and Vets, but dont commit them unless you are sure they will survive. Charge them in the second round of an assault to clean it up, that way the enemy cannot hit them back, they have to hit models they are already engaged with... They will last longer. Also, Use them to grab objectives. Consider a Devastator squad. Use as many template weapons as you can. The Whirlwind has a shot that denies cover saves. You will face more and more Orks and other horde armies so flamers and blast templates from Plasma Cannons and the WW are important.

Your army as it is now will win games if the conditions are right. They need lots of cover to jump behind before they get into assault. If they lack that cover... they are dead. AP 2 weapons will slaughter them wholesale. They are a little too focused on Assault.

Check out my blog. http://warhammer40kbloodangels.blogspot.com/

and

http://warhammer-40k-space-marine.blogspot.com/

You will find my army list there, and lots of other advice. I am going to copy and paste this into my blog since it is a good question and good info. Any further questions, ask there! :) Thanks for buying my vids. Jawaballs

Warhammer 40k: Blood Angels in Action Oct. 19th Brother's Grim

My army has been refitted and upgraded. In my last tournament showing, while the Blood Angels took Best Painted, they got embarrassed on the gaming tables. I won my first game against a tough Ultramarine Drop Pod army, but got owned in the second two. This army is much stronger! That first army focused on assault, at the cost of range. This army has plenty of both but lots of Blood Angels flair! Here are some pics! Look for battle reports after the tournament. I will be shooting video and pics all day. :) Jawaballs.

Tough decision... Vindicator vs Land Speeder and Attack Bike

I just dont know. I am currently using my vindicator with Storm Bolter in my list for 130 points. For 125 points I can buy a Speeder with Multi Melta and Heavy Flamer, and Attack bike with Multi Melta, then add a flamer to my Honor Guard.

Vindicator Pros: Str 10 blast. That gun is awesome, with the new scatter rules very accurate, and it forces people to deploy in ways they might not want to. I can roll it up into cover, and blast away to defend held objectives, or knock out transports.

Vindicator Cons: It is just one model and glances can essentially eliminate it from the fight. A lucky str 7 shot at its front armor can take out the gun. In every game I play, it is usually the first thing taken out, and usually pretty quickly.

Land Speeder: In using my Templar landspeeder, I have fallen in love with them! Its multi-melta means it can take out ANY armor from 36 inches away. If it gets within a foot and hits, it is almost a guaranteed pen. The heavy flamer is death. Only marines get saves against it, and it wounds most models on 3s I think. It works best when you jump it up on a disembarked squad, target the transport, pop it with the meltagun and hopefully explode it while washing the flame over the squad for good measure. Finally, I can give it a Typhoon Missle laucher as well as the flamer and MM. Just saw that. Str 5 AP 5 small blast twin linked. 48" range. This means it can move 12 and fire ALL three weapons. Its a killing machine!

Attack Bike: Super Fast, toughness 5, 2 wounds, Multi Melta and twin linked bolter, cover save when moving fast! Plus it is small and able to hide behind cover... This thing can zoom up and pop out to knock out tanks.

Simply typing this up has pretty much decided this for me. I must go with the Fast Attack choices. Given all that, PLUS they can zoom across the board at the end of the game and contest objectives... I believe this weekend will be the last appearence of my Vindicator... :( This change will simply make my army stronger!

Warhammer 40k: Blood Angels Battle Report, Blood Angels vs Orks

Today I played my 1750 list against an Ork army. He had 3 Defcoptas, Grotsnick in a squad of 30 orks, a squad of commandos with a special character, a squad of lootas with some str 7 heavy weapon, and about 50 other orks. He had a 7 man strong squad on bikes with the Warboss and a painboy. 4 loot counters and Dawn of War. He deployed loot counter first, and placed his towards the center, then I placed mine in terrain close to an edge. He placed his in another terrain piece in the center, and I placed the last one in the middle as well. That heavily weighted the advantage to whomever got the side with the counters close to the edge... he got his choice, and selected the other side, much to my glee. So I deployed, I placed my Tac squad in 2 combat squads, each on a loot counter, I placed my RAS behind a wall, and Dante with his HQ as one HQ squad as far up as I could and still be out of sight. That forced him to deploy at disadvantageous spots for his foot sloggers to have to charge against my plasma and vindicator.

Turn 1:
I moved Dantes squad to the right flank from the center. My Lascannon rolled DoW and had range so fired on an ork squad and vaped an ork. I moved the rest of my units into the game, running them as well to get them as far as possible, this moved my heavies into cover, and got me a good start with my Dreads. My opponent deployed his forces too, but held 3 coptas and the commandos in reserve. He had no good shots that turn. Turn 1 ended quick.

Turn 2: My death company advanced to assault Grotsnicks squad. I killed a few orks with shots, and Dante and the RAS moved to assault the warboss. I pumped as many shots into them as possible and failed to kill any. They had lots of saves including 3+ cover and an invuln save. My dreads moved up again and popped smoke, as well as my Baal. In the assault, Dante and co. went in for the Warboss squad killed a couple, and lost a couple, tied combat. The DC went against Grotsnick and killed 3, but were wiped out by power claws. On his turn a couple of Coptas came in and dropped a template, but his shooting didnt do much except immobilize one of my dreads.

Turn 3: My shooting was vicious, the Baal moved 6 and unloaded all of its guns on his loota squad, killing half of it. My heavies swatted the defcoptas and my Vindicator took a shot, killing a few orks. Not much was in range. In the assault, my Dread assaulted Grotsnicks squad killing a few and taking no hits, and Dante routed the warboss. They then moved in towards the center to continue the sweep of the board. On his turn, his commandos came in. His shooting was again ineffectual, but he assaulted my Vindi and Dev Combat Squad. He wiped out the Devs and immobilized the Vindi. The Dread killed a few more orks, including Grotsnick, and lost an arm to a power claw. Dante and his banner moved behind the Baal to be in assault range for turn 4 and my RAS moved to take an objective.

Turn 4: This pretty much ended the game. My shooting took a toll. I fired the Vindi at another ork squad, but the shot scattered, landing half on the squad, and half on the squad that was in assault with the Dread. It killed 10 Orks. The Baal finished off his loota squad, except for one. My tac squad moved to shoot up the commandos then assaulted them. Corbulo would need to come help, but they ended up killing them off and the tac squad went back to take objective. In the assault, Dante and his banner knocked out another ork squad with a sweeping advance and the Dread would finally finish off that 30 man squad by forcing it to make a morale test, fail, then get run down in turn 5. We played out turn 5 for fun, but it was over, at the end of the turn he had a single ork on the table, and I had almost my entire army including 3 objectives held. In his defense, my opponent was trying a new Ork army build, and the location of the loot counters heavily weighed in my favor, but even had he taken more boys and less toys, I think the game would have been mine. I simply had too much firepower at distance, and when he got into bolter range, it got really messy, and Dante and co. swept through 3 squads themselves including a rock hard Command squad. If my games at the Bros. Grimm go any thing like this, I like my chances. :)

Video will be added shortly

Warhammer 40k: Lifsize Blood Angels 2nd Company Banner

Here is the banner almost complete! I dug up some bones to use as the cross piece... :) All I need to do is a few more highlights on the blood drops, some purity seals on the bottom right, and some name plaques on the middle tassle. Pretty sweet!

Full Blown battle prep.

SO, I am in battle prep mode. My Black Templars are going to go into a holding pattern, and my Iyanden Farseer is going to be completed then shelfed for Fritz's competition. The Grand Tournament is about 5 weeks away, and just as important is the Brothers Grim tournament on October 19. That is 10 days! I will be representing the Brothers Sanguinius at both events. Here is what I have to do and my goals.

Goal 1:
Win best painted at Brothers Grim.

Goal 2:
Win Best Overall at Brothers Grim.

Goal 3:
Win Players Choice at Grand Tournament Baltimore

Goal 4:
Get an honorable mention at the GT Golden Daemon.

To do this I need to
A:
Finish my life sized BA 2nd company banner

B:
Finish my Blood Angels 2nd company army

C:
Start and finish a display board for both events

D:
Start and Finish Golden Daemon entries.

I plan on painting a new Honor Guard for the GT GD. I am using a Vanguard squad to do so for the Squad category. I will also build and submit a few vehicles. I am submitting a Vindicator, and Rhino. I will submit a Forgeworld Furioso Dread for Monstrous Creature, and that will also be entered for the Forgeworld best of show entry. These are VERY VERY ambitious and lofty goals for the GT. Believe me, I have no disillusions of actually winning, but it would be nice to have my models perhaps mentioned.

This will be a LOT of work. Honestly, I have no idea when I will do it...:( But I will try.

My top goals are Best painted at the brothers grim, and players choice at the GT. I think I have a shot at both. Stay tuned! :)

Way of Saim-Hann Eldar Farseer on Jetbike Conversion

This work in progress is my submission for Fritz's Eldar Farseer contest. I imagine the competition is stiff, and I dont expect victory, but this is a great excuse to finish an idea I have had on a back burner since December. This farseer is made from a jetbike, autarch left arm, Dire Avengers right arm, Mounted high elf mages body and farseers head. Painting yellow fabric is hard to say the least. This is the first yellow robes I have attempted. I have decided to downplay the yellow robes by switching most of them to blue which I am a little better at. I have also switched most of the chasis of the bike to blue too. One of my strengths is in my hand painting, I hand painted the base coat for an Iyanden logo on the chasis of the bike. Look for me to do lots of runes on the edges of the bike and the robes of the farseer. I gots to get going it is due soon!

Warhammer 40k: Life size Blood Angels 2nd Company Banner

Here is the banner almost complete. Just need to do the bottom parts and some final details. Look for this banner at the GT!

Warhammer 40k: How to paint Space Wolves

I just finished my most recent "How to Paint" video set. Space Wolves! Hope you enjoy! Jawaballs

Warhammer 40k Blood Angels: Battle Report 'ard boys tournament

Here is a submission from a reader. Check it out! Nice job Kevin.

Oh Great anf Mighty Brother Jawaballs,

Great site, of course.
Below I've added a short batrep of my recent 'ard Boyz qualifier with
my Blood Angels. If you're not especially interested in that, stop
reading now! Feel free to post it, edit it, or delete it as you see
fit.

For Sanguinius!

Thanks,
Kevin Horner
-----
This was my first big tournament of the year, and was quite a lot of
fun... though I was not in the best of shape, as I had not slept for
about 30 hours by the end of the 3rd game. Still, it was a lot of fun,
and there were no 5 KP Guard armies there.
My apologies for the lack of details throughout the game.
My list -
Dante and an HG w/ a Sang. Priest, a Chapter banner, a flamer, and 1
pw, Lemartes and a 6-strong DC.
3 x 10-man Tac squads w/ power weapon, flamer, and plasma cannon, one
had a Tl-lascannon-armed Razorback
a 10-man Tac squad w/ a pw, plasma gun, and plasma cannon, and a
Rhino. I tended to combat squad this unit.
a 10-man RAS w/ a power fist
a 3-bike attack bike squadron, all with multi-meltas
a Baal Predator w/ heavy flamers
a Whirlwind which I usually loaded with incendiary rounds
a plasma-cannon armed dreadnought
a venerable Death Company Furioso

Game 1 - vs Blood Angels
His list -
A Land Raider Crusader
Dante, a Chaplain, a large DC, an assault squad (RAS, I believe)
a small shooty Terminator squad, some footslogger Tacticals
a LS w/ multimelta, and a Vindicator
5 objectives, Deployment: table quarters
Lots of cover, deployed 4 tactical squads with just plasma cannons in
fire lanes, 2 on top of 2 objectives , plasma gun combat squad in
TL-lascannon razorback to capture nearby objective. Fairly ineffective
shooting all around all game, Opponent shot up DC, which was screening
LEmartes, Dante, HG, and dreadnoughts. His Dante/Chaplain/DC/RAS
combination ate up one RAS, but that and the surprise of a teleporting
shooty Terminator squad were most of the tense moments of the game. I
had resigned myself to losing this... I was sure that my combat squad
soon to be crushed between the anvil of a nearby Terminator squad and
the hammer of a huge formation of enemy assault troops was too far
away from an objective... but when time was called they were within
control range and the enemy forces too far away.
If the game had gone even one turn more he would have crushed me, as
my own assault element couldn't even kill an immobilized Land Speeder.

Game 2 - Vs Orks
His list -
I was starting to fade here, but I remember there being an annoying
FNP mob, some biker nobs, a battlewagon full of boyz, grots, some
meganobz in a vehicle, and cannon or lootaz on Guard heavy-weapon
bases
Objective: kill points
Deployment: DoW (which we forgot all game until after shooting was
over, each turn)
This was played on a ruined cityscape, so the Sons of Sanguinius set
up in cover, hoping to thin out the greeskin hordes before mounting a
countercharge that would sweep the xeno scum form the field.
Unfortunately, fire discipline was not maintained properly despite the
presence of Chapter Master Dante and Chaplin Lemartes, so rather than
wipe out the lowly gretchin as the Marines should have, they wasted
the holy plasma of Mars on the too-numerous squads advancing across
the ruins. The Blood Angels' mistakes were critical, as a potentially
game-changing charge by the RAS failed to reach the enemy biker nobz.
When the game was called, two tactical squads and a 3-strong attack
bike squadron had been eliminated, while none of the enemy squads were
defeated.

Game 3 - Vs Orks
His list -
A Dread babysitted by a KFF-mek, a squadron of Kans, a large boyz mob,
a small biker squad, lootas, stormboyz, a trukk of boyz, and there
must have been others, but I forget.
Objective: kill points and 1 objective each
Deployment: DoW (which we forgot again)

The greenskins went first, deploying the largest mob right at the
table half in cover, the dread and mek at the half-table line, and
everything else coming out on his turn: the kanz near his objective
(though it turns out this was a mistake rather than the kunnin' plan I
thought it was), and so on.

The Angels of Blood had only a little cover in this battle, so
deployed two Tactical Squads around their objective and most of the
balance (a tactical Squad, a RAS, and Lemartes) on the far right
intending to make its way to the enemy objective.

The Orks surged forward, but terrain slowed them. They had little
firepower other than mostly ineffectual Lootaz, and the Marine
shooting was a bit more useful this time around. An early Orky assault
was countered by a furious attack by a RAS, Lemartes and the DC, and
Dante and his Honor Guard. Needless to say, that enemy was destroyed
handily, and this wave of righteous fury continued on to surround a
second enemy mob that had moved out of cover to try to wipe out the
DC.
The HG's Chapter banner helped immensely in these two assaults, as did
Lemartes Litanies of Hate for the DC. Time was called here too...
pushing around that many figures in assault (and rolling all those
attacks on either side) took forever. The game was something of a
victory for the Marines, though... the BAs shooty elements poured
everthing they had into a smallish mob of Stormboyz that had moved to
the middle of the board. Though in cover, the Whirlwind's incendiary
rounds were of prime importance in wiping out this enemy unit. The
Orks had lost two mobs of boyz and their Stormboyz, while the Marines
had only minor casualties.
Though this game might have been touch-and-go if it had gone longer, I
think I could have taken it anyway(even though Orks alwas give me
fits), as I was given the opportunity to destroy the enemy units
piecemeal. To be fair, though... my opponent (I think) was ready to
pack it in for the day and mostly wanted to see the orky carnage as
soon as possible. The orks on my left (bikers, the lootaz, and a bit
more) were wary of my dreadnought, so rather than roll up my left
flank they redeployed more toward my center, which helped some.

All of my opponents were great to play against, and were very patient
with me being sleep-deprived beyond all sanity. I ended up 2nd in the
tournament, having a 2-1 record.

Warhammer 40k Blood Angels: Battle Report Blood Angels vs Salamanders

Tonight I played a proxied army of all drop pod Salamanders built using the new SM codex. He had two dreads including an Ironclad, terminator squad, and the rest were tactical marines with combinations of meltas and plasmas. He had the Sally commander from the new SM codex. I must say facing this drop pod army was scary, but I know how to defend against them and he knew it... so we were set up for a great game! The mission was kill points dawn of war. My opponent Ed gave me first go, so I deployed my two combat squads in cover and Dante with my assault squad behind ruble. Ed had his pods so nothing came in first turn for him, I used the opportunity to run my Devs into cover and move my squads out. I put most of my forces right in the center of the table, with my Lascannon com squd in the right in a building. That was a mistake because he was able to single them out. My Vindicator was a little exposed on the right too and it cost me.

Turn 1 saw 4 drop pods come in for him. He dropped them suprisingly outside of my assault range. I was waiting for all those marines to come out and rapid fire on me. He deployed with the pods between me and him. I think he tasted the burn of my assaults before and chose to play defensivly against me. The came out and reduced my Las CS to just the heavy weapon. It would die next turn and claim no kills. The same for the vindicator. He dropped a pod with a Dread next to it and he deployed and multi melted it. But thankfully I had a furioso lined up to assault that dread with furious charge... It did not survive. I ran my DC up on a tac squad which took all game to kill. Finally I killed it just in time for him to assault the last DC with his Ironclad Dread.

What the game ended up coming down to was how many of his pods could I knock out for kill points. I ran Dante up against a squad, knowing would probably not kill it, but I wanted to have fun. I should have kept him back to hunt pods. It cost me cause he died to Melta fire. The bright spot of the game was my lowly troop assault squad assaulting a force of Terminators. I won the combat, and he failed morale. They turned and ran and I let them go, then assaulted their drop pod with Krak Grenades! Sadly they did not blow it up and were almost wiped out, but the Sarge lived to run and hide. No Kill point for you! My Devs did a good job at keeping him at bay. Those Plasma cannons can be scary to advance into. But most of my squads spent the game hiding... :( After killing every thing that they could reach without exposing themselves to heavy fire, they just hid behind buildings. Sad I know, but the game is about tactics! I didnt want to lose a squad and trade kill points. I ended up claiming victory 6 KP to 5. I knocked out 3 drop pods, and left two of his squads standing with just 1 guy each. The game went 7 rounds! Ed is a great marine player and an all around great guy to play against. The game was fun and we both learned a bit. He learned how the Baal Predator works...Yes Ed, Fast Vehicles CAN shoot all their guns after moving 6. He also learned about Death Company Dreads. I learned about the new Salamander list. All I can say is, tanks beware!