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.