Battle Report: Blood Angels vs Imperial Guard Deep Strike army


I went to the Glen Burnie battle bunker after Gamesday to try to get a chance to take on any one who may want to come play. A reader was supposed to, but sadly Ryan fell asleep and failed to make it. But luckily there was a guy there willing to play! Doug had also traveled down to the area for Gamesday. He had an IG army made using the older codex and asked me if I cared that he use that one. I did not and we started rolling.

1750
Blood Angels standard Jawaballs mech list
Imperial Guard 2 basilisks, inquisitor and retinue, calidus assassin, and a LOT of deep striking infantry bristling with melta and plasma guns.

3 loot counters
12" deployment zone



My opponent had some Inquisitor fun that allowed him a +1 to win the die roll to go first. He used it and won the roll. In his triumph, he claimed the honor of going first. (Which I would have given to him any way.) My standard procedure for a deep strike army is to take second turn and reserve every thing. He deployed his 2 basilisks and inquisitor/retinue and I reserved it all much to his chagrin. The 3 loot counters were in easy range for my rhinos and troops to get to.

Turn 1:
Nothing happens. Every thing was in reserves.

Turn 2:
A good portion of his infantry deep strike into the center of the table. He then runs them into a large terrain piece in the center. Right around here he confidently announced that he has not lost a game in over 2 years...

On my turn, only Dante and a Baal come in. Again, my legendary ability to roll 1s. So, the pred lights up a squad causing them to fall back, and Dante jumps in to assault a squad, killing it.

Turn 3:
A lot more of his stuff came in. Dante found himself surrounded by at least a planets worth of Guardsmen. The Baal exploded to melta fire from some veterans, and Dante would go down in a hail of Las and Plas shots. The remaining troops that did not fire, ran to spread out and receive my charge. His assassin came in and simply deployed in the center. He also lost a squad that deep striked to close to Dante and then failed on the mishap table.

On my turn, about half of my remaining forces came in. I spread out my Rhinos to get into position to take objectives, and rammed my Death company and corbs right down the middle. They moved in and finished off some squads and the Baal preds cut down droves.

Turn 4:
All of his forces came in. He began to see my plans, and started to make moves to prevent them... It was at this point that he realized that unless he got extremely lucky, I was probably going to take the win. He shot up my Death Company, then using direct fire from this Basilisks, destroyed a rhino and a Baal. Thats ok, I have more. :)

On my turn, the rest of my stuff was in play and the game was on. I put my tanks in position to move fast on turn 5 and take objectives. I cut down a lot of guardsmen trying to hold objectives on my side and made shored up my troops to withstand Basilisk shots on turn 5 by spreading them out and arranging the rhinos to block plasma fire.

Turn 5:
He mad his move to claim objectives and took two. But it was too late. On my turn, I simply tank shocked the crap out of him, losing one rhino, but successfully rolling over and pushing away 4 squads from my path towards the objectives. One rhino, that I was using to hold an objective, stormed away 18" to actually claim another one, while an assault squad who lost their rhino moved over to claim the first. I used a rhino to skillfully push him off the last objective. At the end of turn 5, I held all three objectives and there was little he could do to stop it. I rolled the die to end the game... and of course... a 1 popped up. Game ends... Jawaballs wins!

He had a sick army. He was sort of sharking me... He knew what he had, and had a chance to see my army before agreeing to play. Every squad was decked out with maximum plasma and melta shots. He thought he was going to roll over me and had I deployed my army like he was expecting, I would have been run off the table turn 3. However, he was a perfect example of a good player being "Behind the 5th edition curve". He was trying to play 4th edition tactics with a 4th edition army. The game is NOT about overwhelming fire power, which he definitely had. A lot of players are slow to change with the times, and their old stand byes no longer work. This guy who had been crushing people with this army for 2 years finally came up against some one who thinks in the 3rd dimension (credit to Fritz for coining that term) and epic failed. I feel badly for him because his army was strong and nice looking. But now it is totally illegal. He is going to have to rebuild the entire thing according to the new codex, and hopefully got a taste of what it means to play 5th edition. Video to come soon.

11 comments:

Parcival said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Parcival said...

Where can I get to see your standard mech list? Thanks in advance.

Jawaballs said...

On the right side of my blog towards the bottom you will find my post archive. Look for Army List. The most up to date version is the April 2009 one. enjoy! jawabals

Tim said...

Nice report... it almost seems like declaring that he has won for the past 2 years was jinxing himself. Great report, I had a similar experience in a recent tournament. One of the players had been undefeated in the entire 8 weeks of the tournament until he ran into my blood angels. using saim hann tactics to steal objectives on turn 5 with the 4th edition player dropping his jaw in disbelief! haha! love moments like that.

Jawaballs said...

Thanks tim! And it was good to meet you at GD. Hope James didn't offend you too badly! :) I forgot to mention, that after having a chance to see my army on the table, he pulled out models that were better suited to play me. For example, I think he had a sentinal at first, but when he finally had his guys set up, the sentinal was gone. Nothing like having the luxury to put together an army to beat your opponents army on the spot, and still getting crushed... :)

Jwolf said...

Another player with units in range of Dante charging them from the board edge?
A drop army player choosing first turn?
Knowing your opponent is Blood Angels and choosing to play an army of short range infantry firepower?

If the guy hasn't lost in 2 years, he's not playing enough games and certainly not enough against good opponents. Not losing is a function of not playing enough games, not skill.

Jawaballs said...

Jwolf, every game I play a game you say the guy sucked, or had a bad list or whatever... despite the fact that I won a large tournament a couple weeks ago full of rock hard lists... I got a feeling nothing short of a Grand Tournament win will appease you! :) You are right, many of the games I have posted have been very one sided due to poor lists and players, but just as many are up against some of the best players and lists in the New York area.

I was hoping you guys would make the trek to Baltimore! I would love to play against you... if for not other reason then to learn what a 'good' opponent is. Obviously I cannot find one on the East Coast. :)

Jawaballs said...

Damn spelling mistakes, how do I edit my own comment???

Jwolf said...

I'm sure you play some great opponents, and I've only commented on two battle reports. I hope you can agree that it takes a special kind of person to put anything in range of Dante reserving onto the board. "Oh, the Master of the Blood Angels? I bet he'll have some great recipes for Beaten Face!"
I hope to get a chance to play with you guys later this year, but I'm not terribly sorry to have missed Baltimore.
If nothing else, Chicago is closer to you than to me, so load Fritz up and head over to Adepticon next April.
Don't take it personally; I hardly ever comment on battle reports because so many battles are just going through the motions from the end of turn 1. I read your stuff because I have an affinity for the Blood Angels and the mistakes your opponents demonstrate deserve some comment. Just because they screw up is no reflection on you; as often as not winning is a matter of screwing up the least anyway.

As to winning a GT - not a lot of chance at that this year, eh?

Jawaballs said...

Believe me brother, no offense is taken. If I got offended by every little thing some one posted I shouldnt be writing on line. Maybe Fritz and I will have to go to Chicago. We are considering a flight to Texas! :)

There is a mini GT in November in PA. 5 games over 2 days, NOT run by GW. Maybe it will actually be run well. I think we will be going to that one. Maybe you and some of your TX boys can come out!

Unknown said...

great batrep, great vid, enjoyed both and loved to see guard getting squished, well done

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