Blood Angels in Action: A Moral Quandary, part Deux

After all the suspense from last weeks post, the Capt of the 8th is back for the thrilling conclusion to the nerve-racking battle report.

It all started here. It was an entertaining start to a game, go check it out. I'll wait.

We left off at the bottom of turn 2. Most of the Dark Eldar had been un-horsed, and the Blood angels were in prime position to get their Black Rage on.



Here are the two forces before the Blood Angels opened fire and killed the two closest Raiders and some of the warriors in them in the top of turn 2. They are in a line there, you can't see the second one.

In his turn he brought his last Raider with the Incubi + Archon over into the middle of my troops. he moved flat out so he didn't disembark and assault. His return fire from the two downed warrior squads was sufficient to erase one of the combat squads and attached Priest. His shooting this round was ridiculous. He couldn't miss me it seemed, and all his poisoned weapons were getting the job done. Splinter cannons seemed to be silly good. They put out so many shots and therefore lots of wounds. Versus MCs its got to be crazy good. You can run and tell that!

Top of the 3rd turn saw my flamestorm Baal getting in position to murder some Dark Eldar Warriors. All of my other squads were trying to get into position against his Incubi. The tank roasts all but 2 of the remaining warriors, one from each squad remained. I thought I had wiped one squad out for another kill point, but one of the models was hiding behind the Raider and I couldn't see it. But this is where my dice failed me, and my opponents dice went on fire. I fired all my missiles at him, a total of 6. No results. I missed or couldn't pen. I fire all my melta at him. Two shaken results on glances, and he saves any penetrating rolls. Oh well, sometimes your dice desert you.

So then I try and assault the Raider to bring it down. That was a mistake too. I failed to harm it, and then I was nice and clustered together for a multi-charge from the Incubi next turn. Big mistake. I should have stayed back and fed him small units at a time. This squad packed 35+ S:5 I:5 PW attacks. They would chew easily through any small squad and be vulnerable to fire in my turn.


Here we are after my shooting and failed attempt at assaulting a fast skimmer. Lesson learned. That Baal predator pulled his weight though. Killed 11 Deldar in one go. Mmmmm, toasty!

On his turn is where things start turning around for the both of us. I thought I had things firmly in hand. That thought lasted until he moved his Raider out of combat and assaulted two of my squads with the contents. They hit me like a ton of bricks. I never got to swing back. And to top it off, his stupid Archon Soultraps my Libby. Now we have a base S:3 Arcon with double str to 6, then +1 str from combat drugs, and FC, FNP and fearless. I have nothing for this guy now. How can I stop him? A 2++ is hard to break. Granted he fails one and it is gone, but I have no way to single him out with shooting, and he wins in combat. Uggg.

I just lost two combat squads and my Libby in one assault. I wasn't happy about that. I then bring my last real chance and leveling the playing field, my flamestorm Baal. Screw the 3+ save and the FNP on your Incubi. So I let loose with it and kill 5 of the 10 Incubi. Crappy rolls. Then I send my missiles into them, and he passes every cover save from his Raider in the way. They just wouldn't die like I wanted. Pistols were totally ineffective too, but thats no surprise. I try to lead him away from my tank with the last Techmarine as bait, but he didn't fall for it.

On his turn he assaults my Baal pred and at str 8 on the charge with loads of attacks, I didn't last. He blew up my Baal pred and had the game soundly in his hands. The score at this time is 5KP to the BA and 6KP to the Dark Eldar. It was really over the the game continued and I am not going to give up.

So top of turn 5 I charge into his Incubi, just to deny him the charge with my last Assault squad. The Techmarine rapid fires into them, and he slaughters me of course. One more KP to him. On his turn he charged into the ruins with my Devs if the game continues. But the game ends on the die roll, and the Deldar win 7 to 5.

Incubi are really silly in combat vs Marines. They are designed that way of course, but all you Blood Angel/Meq equivalent armies better be ready for them. They hit hard, especially with an attached Archon giving them combat drugs. The +1 strength for them really clinched the deal.

So be ready to shoot them down, or get some Storm Shields so you can weather that storm. Archons are nasty in combat, but you should all know that already. If he has an Incubi retinue, then you better be prepared to target them first with most of what you have. If you can wreck their ride, then you can dictate how things go after that, but they have Fleet, so don't get over confident.

So even after all the shenanigans, I still kind of enjoyed the game. It was close at the end. He began to cheer up after he began to slaughter me in combat, so the mood quite improved for both of us. After the game he had to pack up and go, so I shook his hand and didn't take the time to correct him on his errors or cheating, whichever they were. Whatever, I thought, it's a new codex, he will pick up the basics as he goes along.

Then on a hunch, I checked his army list in the store copy of the Dark Eldar codex; 1,150 points on my side to his 1,370 points. Well, there goes the goodwill and the benefit of the doubt I gave him all along. He may not have been trying to cheat with all the other things (although I doubt that now), but seriously? You can't even add? He gave me the points limit too, it's not like we had some miscommunication. I just had to laugh to myself. What a guy after all.

I won't be playing him again. It's that easy.

So there you have it. My first run in with Dark Eldar. I put up a decent fight against an army with ~20% more points than mine. Granted it left a sour taste in my mouth, but that doesn't mean I'm not still having a love affair with the new models. The warriors and skimmers are still sexy models. And don't even get me started on the Reavers. In addition, the codex seems like a good one. Balanced and in line with the other 5th ed codices. Can't wait to face it in a fair fight :)

I'll be back hopefully next week with some pics of my army, the painted portions at least. Hopefully I'll get some more time to do some painting over the holidays. Until next time.

Michael, Capt of the 8th