Battle Report: Conflict GT game 4 Blood Angels vs IG

You all might remember my rant not long ago about the death of 40k as we know it. Well, I finally got to play against the list I was talking about in that rant. 3 Vendettas, 2 medusas, 2 48" melta gun cannon tanks, and lots of chimeras filled with vets bristling with melta guns. Oh, he had a psycher battle squad. master of the fleet. etc.

I have to say, that the game was one of the best games of 40k I have ever played. Al was a great opponent and a great sport. The game was interesting, no bs, lots of fun and to the wire. Just the way a game should be.

He won the roll, and took 2nd turn because it was Dawn of War for two turns. I deployed what I could and walked on turn 1 the rest, except for a tactical squad. i wanted some way to save the game in the face of catastrophe.

Deployment: Modified DoW for 2 turns, Mission: control table corners

Turn one: Night fight in effect.

I move on my predators, going for a terrain piece in the middle of the table that would grant me cover saves all game, yet give me full range and sight on most of his army. I moved them both 12" and parked. He had deployed very little to begin with and I had no shots.

On his turn he brought on every thing in full shooty spread. He had a Vendeta on each end and one in the middle, his chimeras clustered in the center and on one end, and his tanks all lined up in the back. He fired some shots, but was out of range.

Turn Two: Night fight in effect.

I move my two preds 6" and get them into position to fire from cover. My bikes moved up behind the preds and my Las teams moved into position the previous turn so they were ready to fire.

I shot my first pred at the first Vendetta in line and reached it through the dark with my searchlights... While failing to hurt, I lit it up for the rest of my army! I next shot one of my lascannons at it... exploding it. The boys bailed out.

My next shot was my second pred at the next vehicle in line, which was a Veteran Chimera. I shook it with the ass cannon... but more importantly, lit up another with the search light. The next lascannon in line... blammo, dead chimera, the boys bail out.

What luck! This was doubly lucky because those two tanks were the only things in range to shoot at my preds, which were far up forward.

I charged my Rhino up the right flank 18" and popped smoke. I was being aggressive, as I learned was the way to be vs this army. Get in their face, force them to make decisions rather then leisure plug away at me.

On his turn, he had very few options. Nothing but a rhino was in range, and he knew he had to kill it. Not much else he could do! So he opened up on it. The smoke saved half of the shots until finally he exploded it. But he was dangerously low on shots! It came down to his last shot, a high damage plasma burst. He succeeded at killing the combat squad, but not the captain. Muahaha.

Turn Three:
Now my preds needed to start working on his troops. I began targeting squads in range and whittling them down. It was like exterminating roaches. I was just managing the size of their squads, so that later in the game a single wound would force LD tests. I moved out the bikes to line up more Chimeras and most importantly two of my pods came down. He had the psycher that reduced my roll by one. So nothing came down in turn two, but two came now! I dropped one right in the front of his chimeras and tanks, and one in the back line next to his heavy guns. My captain moved up on a Vendetta to take it down.

So in my shooting, I exploded another vendetta and my capt. shook the third. I used my other guns to try to pop the chimera in front of my dread and was successful. He then layed the flame on them and killed all but the leader. The other dread popped one of the big guns. On the right side, he had taken wounds so the vet squad was falling back, and my captain moved to force them to continue, before shooting the Vendetta.

At this point, his army was falling fast. He would need a big turn around to save things.

On his turn his squad on the right fell back some more, but managed to stop right at the edge and he turned all of his melta guns on my dread... but MISSED! In fact he missed all of his shots at it and he was desperate to destroy it. It was going to take down his other big gun next, then he would be helpless against the dreads. But luck would favor him. He had a good angle, through my pod with a multi laser. He managed to destroy the dread with it. Damn. The other one took some heavy hits and was destroyed as well. But they did their damage!

Turn Three:
It was turning out that I was in control of the game. As I saw it, I had one corner firmly in control, so only had to work to contest the other three and stop him from being able to contest my corner. I started working on his troops again in the middle with my preds... killing one squad and the other went to ground. My two death company models finally made it across the board and assaulted a Chimera, destroying it! My lascannons took aim at his medussa guns, trying to silence them... i only blew off a gun this time. My captain assaulted the vendetta he failed to destroy, and shook it. It would be able to move next turn and get away...

By the end of my turn, I had taken out all but one of his transports with guys inside. He had a mobile chimera, and a vendetta. He had his psycher squad inside a chimera with his HQ. He had 1.5 operational medussas and one heavy cannon.

On his turn his troops assaulted my DC, but my guys won. Drawn combat. He destroyed one of my preds with his heavy cannon, and moved his chimera boys up into my area to try to take out my stuff in my corner. All I had left over there was a rhino with a squad inside, and a pred. he killed my bikes with the medussasa.

Turn Four:
My pod still not in. It was getting close. I had little left! My captain assaulted and finally destroyed the last vendetta. I took shots at the chimera charging my corner, but failed to destroy or stop it. They were gonna get their licks in. My DC took down a vet squad. At this point, he could not win because he had no troops left, or what he did have left was going to ground and about to die to my DC. His only hope was to contest a draw.

So he moved up his chimera and popped out... exploding my pred with melta fire. With little left to shoot, and little to shoot at, that was about all he could do.

Turn Five:
I had to kill the chimera and command squad. My dread came down and I plopped him right next to them. He got out, tageted the chimera, exploded it and layed the flame accross the squad, killing most. But by the end of my shooting, I was unable to kill them all. If the game ended this turn, it would be a draw...

On his turn he tried to take down the dread but was unable. So he tried to hunker in his last survivors in cover and hold out.

A die roll would end the game a draw on a 1 or 2. I did not want that! I had his two corners contested, he contested both of mine. But the game went on!

Turn Six:
Sadly for him, this would be the end. I made sure I would kill his squad by unloading my marines from my hidden rhino, and assaulting the squad after shooting. It died on my charge. Then I massacred them out of any LoS, and used my dread to block it for sure...

On his turn he had nothing left that could reach my corner, and nothing that could reach it if the game went another turn. But it did not matter, the game ended. I had the advantage in table corners and all bonus points.

Al was a fun opponent. When things did not go his way, he did not piss and moan. My lascannons were on fire and every turn did something. That is a rarity for me! The tide of this battle was determiend by the two rounds of DoW. That nullified his huge range advantage, and allowed me to get my assault cannons into position in relative safety. That allowed me to fire my lascannons on him, without fear of him shooting back. I destroyed his vendettas rather quickly, and took down his chimeras with little loss to my army.

I think the single most important move I made was charging my rhino into his right side. That is how to deal with guard. Get in their face and never let up.