Battle Report: Blood Angels vs Grey Knights

It has been a while!  Here is a battle report... my first in Sanguinius knows how long...

2k points. Blood Angels vs Grey Knights.

My list:
Dante
Sanguinary Priest with JP and AP2 power sword relic
5 combat scouts with PW
5 sniper scouts with cloaks and missile launcher
10 assault marines with PW, x2 melta
10 assault marines with PW, Flamer and melta
5 terminators with x1 Th/SS and Land Raider Crusader with Melta
Baal Predator with HB sponsons
Storm Raven with Ass can, multi, Hurricane bolters
Furioso with Blood Talons
5 Vanguard Vets with JP and PW

GK list:
Libby in termy with several spells
15 terminators with various weapons and max psy cans
5 purifiers max psy cans and teleport homer
5 jump GKs
5 infantry GKs
2 Knights with flamer cannon
Godhammer Land Raider with storm bolter

This was my first game using the mission cards.

I don't remember which order the mission cards were pulled, or exactly what they all were. That is not entirely important here.  My opponent was Andrew Tan. Check his blog HERE. He is fairly new to 40k, having spent most of his gaming time in Warmachine.  He is enthusiastic and a very good painter. By the way he does affordable commissions. So if you are looking for some one to paint your stuff!  Check out his blog. He also shot all the pics in this post.  Talented!

So we rolled to deploy and he won. He set up, reserving x2 squads of termies and x2 knights. He actually had 3 teleport homers in his squads.  The stuff he deployed was kept to my left on his edge.  So I deployed my Baal Predator central along with the LRC and Termies in a standard setup. I bubblewrapped them with my infantry. Dante was attached to the 10 man squad that had the priest.  They were the spear head. Dante actually works pretty well as a tank. My raven started off with the vanguard vets and dread inside and my combat scouts outflanked. ( I know... they are awful... but this is my 5th edition army...)

So I started by stealing the initiative.  I immediately rolled my tanks up into range to begin shooting his first squad, and jumped Dante's squad up into the center then ran into a ruin.  The other squad flanked right.

My snipers sat in a ruin on my edge close to an objective should they be called upon to go take it.

My tanks opened up on a GK squad from max range.. and killed 4 of them.  My Baal Pred and Land Raider would remain in the center of the table all game, readjusting lines of fire as needed and putting out a withering amount of fire power.

Blood Angels Land Raider Crusader

On his turn, his jump pack knights moved up on my left flank and he poured a LOT of psycannon shots into Dante's squad. But between Dante shrugging off armor saves, and handing out wounds to his subordinates with cover saves, only a couple of marines were lost.  He also took some las can shots at my predator through the ruin but the venerable old girl made her cover saves. This particular Baal Predator is one of my first tanks, one I used in my PDF army back in the day.  It was good to see her back in action.

Baal Predtor

Baal Predator seen through the ruins.

Turn 2:
Of course, my unlucky Lamenter's storm raven failed to enter the battle. Dante would have to charge without his close support.  No inquisition shall be made of Dante's forces.

Noticing the GK strike force trying to make a run for my back lines, Dante intercepted them and put them to the Axe Mortalis. He led the charge, cutting them down in the assault on his own.  The LRC and Baal adjusted their angles, and began putting fire into more GKs. The LRC finished off the lone survivor of it's first target with the power of the machine spirit, then started shooting at some terminators who got out of their Land Raider.  The Baal Predator supported Dante's assault by softening up the strike squad. Dante consolidated his squad back into the ruin for cover from the psycannon shots that would no doubt be coming his way.

I pulled one of the tactical cards, and it's objective was for my Lord of War to sacrifice himself... yah right.

On the GKs turn, the two knights would fail to enter the battle.  However the librarian and two squads of termies would. He dropped the libby and 1 squad on my right flank to take objectives, an the other squad of termies on my left to add more fire power to try to stop Dante's advance.

He would pump more shots into Dante's squad, and a couple more las shots at my Baal Pred, but only killed a single marine and glanced the predator.

Turn 3:
"Lord Dante calling Lamenter's Battle Barge Ineptitude... where is that support?"

The Storm Raven would again fail to enter combat. Sigh.

From here, Dante decided it was time for a squad of terminators to die.  Wanting to keep my assault forces close to each other, I decided the squad that came out of the Land Raider would be the target, and surrounded it.

Ever see Grey Knight Terminators sweat?

Close your eyes... it will all be over soon.

Dante left his unit and directed them to shoot at the Land Raider. Perhaps a mistake... this would leave them exposed and clumped for nasty Knight flamer templates next turn... but the Red Thirst was taking hold and Dante was going for blood.

By the time Dante was done swinging his Axe, there was little left for the rest of the assault force to hit.  The terminators would finish them off leaving the assault marines oiling their chain axes.

In retrospect, Dante should have taken his squad to the left and assaulted the terminators or purifiers because they would be devastating next turn.

But this assault was glorious.

Now completely taken by the Red Thirst, Dante turns his attention to a Dread Knight

As expected, the Grey Knights would deliver a devastating round of shooting to my forces.  The Librarian scored an objective, but the Dreadknights came down and between them and the surviving terminators and purifiers, would scour almost all of my assault marines.  The purifiers assaulted my priest, killing him and sacrificing their own lives for some magical purpose only the Grey ones would know.

By this time I had lost track of the cards.  I had scored a lot though.  The game was getting out of reach for the Grey Knights. It was soon to be about pride.

Turn 4:

The Storm Raven arrives.  Having forgotten to load their weapons, they had to return to the battle barge and load up.  But now they were here.  It zoomed into combat and immediately made it's presence felt by blasting some terminators and killing a bunch.

Lamenters Storm Raven arriving for duty...

My combat scouts forgotten for two rounds, outflanked and moved to take an objective. The Land Raider would take more shots at the Librarian and his squad, killing one or two.  The Baal predator fired on a knight failing to wound. The surviving melta gunners shot at the Land Raider but only took off a storm bolter.  And Dante would finally realize that his eyes were much bigger than his stomach.  He went after a Dreadknight, however he only had one wound remaining...

The game, at this point, was pretty much in hand for my forces. This round would give me several more victory points and seal it.  Dante charged the Knight, but would die in the over watch!  Oh the luck gods are fickle.

On his turn, he would make a move to charge my Baal Pred with a knight, and finished off some Marines.  However, the dice gods are fickle indeed. The knight needed just 4 inches to assault the predator... and failed.  The librarian teleported his unit into range of my combat scouts, and immolated them with psychic power, leaving molten heaps of flesh and ceramite.

But that would be all we heard from the heretic.

Turn 5:

The Land Raider would finally find it's prey. It moved and opened up on the terminator squad, killing a terminator, then drawing bead on the librarian who was next in line.  He would fail his invulnerable saves to some rending shots from the assault cannon and go down in a heap. If the game was not yet decided, it was now.

My dread and vanguard vets disembarked the storm raven and assaulted the knight who failed to reach my predator. The combat would be a draw.

Die Dreadknight!

My terminators finally reached the remaining terminators. The storm raven moved and reduced the termies to a single model, and my termies finished him off.

At this point, there was little left for the Grey Knights to do.  He assaulted my terminators with his other Dreadknight, and killed a couple, but my Thunder Hammer would finish him off.  The one locked in combat with the dread and vets would kill the dread, but the dread would also kill it.  His remaining termies who were being shot at all game by the LRC would kill a few snipers.  And a roll of the die would end the game.

Over all this was an excellent game.  While the end score was pretty lop sided, the actual game was bloody and close.  At the end I had a handful of vets, a damaged storm raven, a LRC a terminator and a couple scouts. He had much less, but not for lack of trying.

The GKs excel at delivering massive wounds to infantry at close range.  Seeing as how my army is mostly infantry that needs to be at close range to be effective, it evened things out.  When he finally got me lined up and out of cover, he devastated my forces.  Another good round of shooting from him, and some clear shots at my predator with his Las Cans would have greatly changed this game.  My tanks won the support game, by putting out dozens of shots through cover, forcing armor saves and killing models while they could do little to return fire through the ruins.  In a single turn, he eliminated most of my army...  a priest, Dante, about 16 assault marines and a full squad of scouts and if it were not for a terrible assault roll, he would have gotten my predator.  That is nothing to thumb your nose at!

This was a lot of fun and it was a pleasure to play against an enthusiastic player with a pretty army.  The Blood Angels may have won the battle, but the true winners were those of us playing, and the handful of other guys watching the battle. They got into the game as much as us, cheering on exciting die rolls and swooning with the eb and flow of the game. It was a group experience and exactly what 40k is meant to be.  When you step back from the rule munching and competitive min maxing, and remember that the game is meant to be about the narrative and experience, you remember what 40k is all about. Spending a few hours with good people, enjoying your hobby, and having fun.  It can't get much better than that!

Jawaballs