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.