Battle Report: Blood Angels vs Cantor Marines

First game in over 2 weeks! Today I got to play against Burt, a member of our club. Burt is known for being a little surly, but truely, I think I am one of the few guys who "get" Burt. He is always fun to play against! But if you dont understand him, it can be a little intimidating. The best part of playing Burt is that Fritz and I have messed with him so much, that now he always suspects something is up. :) I might add, that Burt is a fellow Blood Angels player, using a Flesh Tearers build. I also give him credit for showing me the Way of Sanguinius. It was a game against burt where he methodicly destroyed my army from range, while I was helpless. That was when I was all jump packs. Soo, thanks burt, here is a taste of the fruits of your labor...

1750 Blood Angels vs Cantor Marines

My standard list vs Cantor, 3 Drop Pods of Sternguard, one of which was completely jacked out with Storm Shields, lightning claws etc, a 7 man Honor Guard, each with a power sword, and two tactical squads with Razor Backs, combat squaded.

Mission: 3 Loot Counters
Deployment: 12" table edge.

Burt won the roll and deployed first. He placed his 4 combat squads and 2 RB in terrain. I reserved all.

Turn 1:
Burt brought in 2 drop pods. One was his HG which came down on the objective nearest me. The other came down on the third. They were deployed in a triangle, with one in each of the left corners of the board, and the third forming the tringle in the middle. So, at the end of turn 1, Burt was holding 1 objective, and contesting 2. I dont know off hand if Cantor makes his Vanguard vets troops, if he does, then Burt was holding 2 and contesting 1.

Turn 2:
On Burts turn, neither of his pods came down. He simply moved his guys to secure objectives and held firm waiting for me!

On my turn, travesty. Only one Baal and my Furioso came on. It was at that time that I noticed his HG had no power fist. Target priority acquired! I moved in, charging my FD at the HG, and my Baal providing fire support. I was unable to get to them this turn, but next turn he would be in assault...

Turn 3:
Burt brought in another pod... these guys came down right ontop of my forces. The sternguard jumped out, and shot Melta guns at my Baal, but only stunned it. He had no other shots that could hurt me this turn.

On my turn, all but a Rhino and a Baal came on. Game on! I clustered my forces on the left side of the board, and bumm rushed his HG and the SGV squad near the edge. I rolled in a Baal, and did some shooting at the squad that Dante was about to assault. I wanted to wittle them down to 5 or 6 so Dante could cut them down on the charge. My furioso moved up on the HG in the building, and flamed/melted them. My troop rhinos continued their left flank end around towards his other objective. IN the assault, Dant cut into the SGV and with the help of Corbulo giving Furious Charge, cut them down. My FD needed a 3 to get up to the next level and assault the HG, and I got it... just barely. Unfortunately for them, they had no power fist, and artificer armor does not protect them from a Furioso Dreadnought getting in 7 close combat attacks with preferred enemy. They all died as well, and my dread massacred back down to ground level, leaving the objective open for my tactical sqauad to come up and claim.

Turn 4:
Poor Burt would suffer some horrible luck on his shooting. He saw my charge on the left and dropped a pod full of SGV right in the path, and moved up a Razor to try to stop me. It seems he caught my disease, and rolls 1 to wound with Las/multi shots. Sadly, he would merely manage to stop my Rhinos from shooting this turn, and also a Baal.

On my turn, things would turn ugly I started to break out. My tanks were hemmed in by drop pods and terrain. Burt objected to my dread pushing his way through the ruins, so we rolled off and the dice said the furioso could not and would have to go around the ruined wall and drop pod. Nope, not a Blood Angels dread. Dante jumped up and over the pod and wall, and landed in range to melta and assault a Razor that had moved up to intercept My vehicles jockeyed around in the confined space making room for the Baal to clear the way. HE moved out of the terrain, and sized up the blocking Drop Pod. In my shooting, a Baal knocked the gun off the Pod, and Dante stunned the RB. Then on the assault, my dread tore into the pod. 6 penetration shots later, the pod was gone... exploded and my way was clear to his other objective. The Dread massacred up to where he would have been had he just gone through the wall! Poetic Blood Angels justice.

Turn 5:
Desperate now, Burt moves out men away from his held objective. A combat squad fires on Dante, and kills him with a Melta gun! Sadly though, this put them in range for a wild charge from the furioso. He also fired shots at the dread with a Lascannon, but again failed to hurt him. Unfortunately for Burt, Dante would be his only kill on the day.

On my moving turn, I moved a rhino up and around his pod on the left, tank shocking the vets in the way. He made his leadership, and elected to just move them. Having no place to go but back, he pulled them out of the way as my rhino swung a right and moved into claim the now vacant objective recent held by the tac squad that vaporized Dante. I moved up my dread, and supported him with Corbulo in the DC rhino. My tactical squad moved up into the ruins to claim my second objective of the turn. With my last movable rhino... the third stalled, I tank shocked the vets again just to dispense with them. Burt pulled them back again, and I prevented him from possibly surrounding the scoring rhino in assault. In shooting, I unloaded a Baal on Cantor's squad hiding in the middle, and killed a couple. The drop pods prevented me from shooting all 3 at them. I had to settle for taking the guns off the pods.

Turn 5 ended with me squarely holding 2 objectives, and him holding none. I rolled a die, but the result would bring the game on to turn 6. However, Burt had had enough.

He had a scary list, quite strongly tooled out for assault and death. But his weakness was his immobility against my super fast and shooty army. He put a jacked out squad of Vets with Storm Shields, claws, powers and cantor, right in the middle of the table on an objective that they could not even hold. That was probably 500 points that did nothing but take casualties. He put an Honor Guard squad on the table each with a power sword, probably blowing another 380+ points with the pod, but their lack of a power fist left them dog meat when my Furioso got to them. He also placed 3 combat squads far off in the corner where they were useless. Sure it is easy to armchair QB a game like this, but the reason I say this stuff is that it points out a major strength in my army! Burt is an experienced Blood Angels player, but was not prepared for my tactics. The combination of fast moving rhinos, and a small but VERY strong assault force took him completely by surprise. The 3 Baal Preds, while never fully unleashing their fire power due to glances and obstructions, were a constant worry for him.

A streak of good luck would have made the game much different for him, but that is why we roll the dice! Good game Burt!