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

Blood Angels in Action: IG Incoming!

It's time of course for another battle report, brought to you by none other than the Capt of the 8th. I'm sure you all missed me terribly (or not at all) since my last post, but I'm back today with a doozy of a write up.

I got in a fantastic game this past week against IG. It had been awhile since I had been able to play a game, but I found a friendly dude on a local gaming forum to go up against. We met up at the designated time and got straight down to business. I have to say I lucked out this time. The guy was a great gamer. He knew the rules and he was way cool the whole game. He played for the kill and this was one of my favortite games to date.

We rolled up standard deployment and capture and control for mission. Neither of us wanted to do the 2 objective thing, so we just went for annihilation. Points was 1750.

I brought my Descent of Angels list, true to my promise to stick with it and work out the kinks. I modified it from last game to add in some more combat punch. I wanted a hard hitting unit to get into assault fast. Enter Vanguard Vets!

Librarian - JP, Lance and Shield
Honor Guard - JP, 4x melta

Techmarine - JP, combi-melta, PW
Techmarine - JP, combi-melta, PW
Sanguinary Priestx3 - 2x JP and Infernus pistols, 1x on foot

Assault Squad - JP, 2x melta, PW and IP on sergeant
Assault Squad - JP, 2x melta, PW and IP on sergeant

Vangaurd Veterans - 6x models, JP, Glaive on sergeant, Pfist, 3x storm shields

Devastators x2 - 4x missile launchers

My opponent brought:

Company Command Squad with full command and sniper rifles

4x Vet squads - 10x models, 2x plasma and meltagun
4x Chimera

2x Vendettas

Leman Russ
Leman Russ Demolisher

3x Stormtroopers - 5x models, 2x melta

I won the die roll to go first, and chose to do so. I wanted my Devastators to have a shot at knocking out some tanks/skimmers before they got blasted off the table. I loaded them up in a ruin in my right corner to benefit from the Techmarine enhanced cover save.

Here are my Devs hunkered down in a nice ruin.

And as a side note, I am a terrible photographer for some reason. I can perform minor surgery on and around the eye, but I just can't take an in focus picture.
Go figure. So just don't look too close at the images, you might get seasick or dizzy.

He then deployed right across the board from me, ready to get into my face. He uses the chaos shrine to get cover for most of his tanks, and the AV 14 LRs covering the rest.



He also scouts his Vendettas to generate a cover save for round one. Wonderful I think, I have no good shots to take. Everything has cover or is a wasted shot into AV14.


So I do the best thing I can and fire all my missiles into his Vendettas. Nothing at all. He saves every glance or penetrating hit. This doesn't look to good. On his turn he repositions some of his Chimeras. Lucky for me 2 of them get immobilized on the terrain. Serves him right for hiding behind Chaos. But then he starts blasting me with that famous IG firepower. He wipes the lower squad off the face of the earth and the attached priest. He also knocks one of the ML devs from the top tier. It could have been worse I suppose, but he is already 2 KPs up on me after my bad round of shooting. I debated back and forth whether to send my troops to ground for the 2+, but I just couldn't do it. Seemed like I would never recover the loss of the Devs shooting. Oh well, next time I think I will be more apt to do it, and try to save the shooting for future turns.


(after he blasted my Devs to bits)

Turn 2 things should get better I felt. Until he tells me he has a Master of the Fleet. Uggh, +1 to my reserve rolls is bad news. After all my rolling, all I manage is my VV and a Techmarine. Good or bad, I don't know yet. It is pretty piecemeal. I land my VV next to his two Vendettas hoping to down them with my Pfist on the assault. I had no better options really. My Techmarine (all pewter model to the left with no arms, I call him David) landed spot on behind his LR Demolisher, and it was my turn to shoot.


(here is the first drop)


My devs target the Vendetta with 3 missiles and they manage to down one of the buggers! First blood for the Angels! The Techmarine then blows up the LR with his combi-melta. Alright, we are back on track now and tied 2-2 on KPs. The VV only manage to take a gun off and immobilize the vendetta. Not what I was expecting. I needed that last Vendetta dead, and my powerfist underperformed.

On his turn, he started blasting me again after his 3 squads of Stormtroopers dropped in to surround my VV. I really couldn't stand up to the onslaught. A multi-laser downed the Techmarine (so much for that 2+), and all the melta and hell-guns from the stormtroopers downed my Vets. The Vendettas with the remaining LR killed the rest of my Devs. He is up 3 more KP now, and I am down morally. I just am not standing up to all the firepower he can bring and things are not looking good for the Angels.

Turn 3 all the rest of my stuff drops in. I land my Techmarine by his remaining LR. One squad of melta toting marines and an attached priest land right near his Stormtrooper squads.


(second drop)

The Honor Guard with attached Librarian land near his outermost Chimera on the left flank, and two assault squads land behind them and within range of the Shield of Sanguinius.


(Libby with HG and vanilla assault marine combat squads)

The last melta toting squad landed in the back right corner, right behind all his tanks. They scatter a bit out of position which makes things a bit more difficult for me. Time to shoot some crap up now. My techmarine goes first and misses with his combi-melta. That sucked. Although the two of them together killed his one LR Demolisher, which was more points than they cost together. The melta squad in the middle of the Stormtroopers tries to vaporize a squad but fail to do so as he saved all the pistol shots. The other melta squad fails as well to do anything of value beside taking a multi-laser off an immobilized chimera. Now it is time for my Librarian to get in some action. He fired off his Blood Lance hitting both of the Chimeras in his path. The first one exploded spectacularly, but the next one was left unharmed, although it was already immobilized. I don't have any assaults to go with so it is time to take another beating from all his guns.

His 1.5 squads of stormtroopers near the Vendetta target my assault squad with the attached priest and start to do some damage. After some poor roles on his side he managed to kill only 3 of the marines. The other squad had moved up to corner my half-blind Techmarine, and they subsequently downed him with melta fire. In the corner the two Chimeras unload all they can into the combat squad with attached priest. Only the sergeant and the Priest survived. On the other side of the Chaos shrine one of his Vet squads had already ditched their immobilized Chimera, and the other Chimera had just disgorged its vet squad its burning hull. Combined with the reaming Leman Russ and the Command Squad they unleashed hell on my Librarian and his Honor Guard. Shield of Sanguinius went up and I started making saves like I had no business doing. Sanguinius himself must have been there deflecting round after round for his sons. After the AP3 pie plate from the tank, a pie plate from the Master of Ordinance, a few sniper rifles, 4 rapid firing plasma guns, a couple of melta shots and loads of lasguns, my Librarian ( with one wound remaining), his Sanguinary Novitiate, and another veteran stood up from the malestrom with blood in their eyes. The IG had not brought enough guns to the fight and it was time to pay.

Top of turn four my squad breaks up to get maximum carnage in near the Vendetta. The priest moves towards the shrine to get one Stormtrooper squad, while the remaining marines move the opposite direction for the other squad. The combat squad in the back corner did not have any good targets so they went after an immobilized Chimera with their melta pistols. The Librarian and company moved up on the poor Guardsman who had exited their transports; the Angels would exact their revenge. Little shooting went on, except for the Chimera getting wrecked from the infernus pistols. It was time for the assault. One combat squad assaulted the closest IG squad and moved it out of the way with the pile in move so my Librarian and HG could get at the second squad behind them. It worked like a charm as the second combat squad piled into the melee to support the other assault marines. The priest charged a Stormtrooper squad solo, and the other marines charge the remains of the second STs. The priest gets killed as he flails around helplessly amid the STs. The assault marines fare no better against the toughened armor of the Stormtroopers, and they in fact lose one of the marines while inflicting no casualties at all. What a bad start for my assaulting this round. Luckily, my Librarian pulls his weight admirably. He and the HG wipe their squad on combat resolution, while the other 10 marines do the same to the remaining squad.

(after the rout, the Angels try to take some cover from the incoming STs, the CCS and the last LR)

The remaining assault marines after the ST squad that claimed the priest jumped into the fight. The last ST squad is behind the LR getting ready to come at the Librarian and friends.

Next round the LR takes aim on the Librarian and HG and manages to down the last two Vets, but the Libby still stands. The charging stormtroopers don't do anything with their weapons, and the CCS also fails to do any damage. The last Priest and sergeant in the corner behind the ruins also weather the fire to come out unscathed. The melee continues with the Stormtroopers near the Vendetta with neither side buckling.

Top of turn four, things begin to turn my way completely. My Librarian makes a suicide run for the incoming STs, while all my other available marines converge on the CCS in the Chaos Shrine. The Librarians righteous rage fills him as he unleashes the Blood Lance on the ST and the LR behind them. One of the ST is pierced through by the lance, which then penetrates the heavy armor of the tank and cooks off its ammunition store. Another ST is lost in the conflagration and the Librarian then charges into them headlong and slaughters them in combat.


(here is the Libby after blasting the tank and mangling the STs)

The CCS can not withstand the rage of the assault marines and the last Priest. They butcher them all to a man amid the Chaos suffused ruins.


(what remains of the CCS is too small to be seen here)

The drawn out combat near the immobilized Vendetta is slowly coming around in my favor as well. I have finally taken out one of the squads and begin to attrition the other.

At this point the game is about tied in KPs, 10-9 in my favor I believe. His remaining Guardsmen are completely unable to handle what I have left and I end up killing the remaining two squads of Vets and one of the Chimeras. At the end of the game he has only an immobilized Chimera and an immobilized Vendetta. I had lost my Librarian to a Perils of the Warp roll right in the middle of the Chaos Shrine, bitter irony, I know.

The final tally was 13-10 with a victory for the Blood Angels!

It was such a fun game and I learned some good lessons. Again, my opponent was top notch. He was way cool when he was beating my pants off the first few rounds, and he was just as cool when I pulled victory from the jaws of defeat. He was laid back and more than helpful in explaining all the new IG stuff to me. Kudos to him, hopefully I get the chance to play him again soon. He apparently runs a 7 Valk/Vendetta list that I would like to go up against sometime.

I finally used squads in support of each other this time and it really paid off. I normally feel like my marines are invincible (which they are not of course) and I hang them out to dry without the necessary support, especially on the DoA drops. This time I tried to keep things more centralized, except for a few instances, but it paid off. I applied massive force on one of his flanks and it crumbled. I was then able to sweep in for the win.

It was a hard fought game, and but for a few dice rolls it could have gone either way. It was a blast of a game though.

I need to get another game in soon, and maybe post up some of my Dark Eldar that I got for Christmas. I decided on a scheme and got some work done on them. Pics to follow.

Until next time!

Michael, Capt of the 8th

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

Blood Angels in Action: A Moral Quandary

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The Capt of the 8th is back, this time with a battle report. And an ethical dilemma that we have probably all run into. This made for a very interesting game. Let's get some back story though.

Rewind about a month, and I'm across the table from an Eldar player. He's got 6 tanks on the table, 3 w/ fire dragons, and 3 with warriors, I think, and Eldrad hanging out in there somewhere. I am playing a hybrid Angels list. 3x las/plas razors 2x dakka preds, and 2x terminators w/ 2x cyclone missile launchers each. We are playing annihilation, and true to the title, he gets annihilated. We call the game turn four, 5kp to 1kp in my favor. I would have tabled him next turn, but there is no need to rub salt in the wound. I trounced him fair and square.

So here we are again across the table to play another pick up game. He has a small Dark Eldar army he is building up and wants to use it instead of a full blown 2000 pt game. He tells me he has 1,150 points ready to go. So I trim this list down to fit.

Librarian, Shield, Lance and JP
Techmarine, jp, combi-melta, and power weapon
Sanguinary priest w/ jp
Sanguinary priest on foot
2x 10 man assault squads, power weapon on sarge, and 2x melta guns
Flamestorm Baal predator
2x 5 man Dev squads w/ 4x missile launchers each

1,150 on the spot. Seemed like a balanced list to me. Anti-tank and anti-horde.

He has this list, as best as I can remember. It's not perfect, but its about 95% accurate keep in mind.

Lelith Hesperax
Archon- Soultrap, Huskblade, Shadow-field, combat drugs, and Ghost Plate I think.
10x Incubi
3x 10 man kabalite squads each with Blaster, splinter cannon, Sarge upgrade, power weapon and blast pistol.
4x Raiders with Flickerfields, chain snares, splinter racks and Grisly trophies



We roll Spearhead and Annihilation, and I get the roll to go first. I place my Devs in a ruin for the 3+ save with a Priest to babysit, and reserve the rest. He then places his four Raiders in a ruin clustered together to try and generate cover. Now I deployed poorly, in that I placed my devs so only a few of them could draw LOS down field the the windows in the ruins. Stupid move by me, and was a major contributor to this debacle. Oh well, you live and learn.

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(Here is deployment, the Deldar army is the gray blur left of the building. Sorry for the bad image quality, I need to change the f-stop or something on the camera. No depth of focus. . . .)

At this point he starts rolling for combat drugs, and he wants to roll multiple dice. I then tell him that in the new codex drugs have been streamlined and that you only roll once, and the result is applied to the whole army. He tells me I'm full of it and wants to roll for each unit with drugs. We go back and forth until he has to appeal to the store manager as an impartial judge. We show him the codex and of course reason and fundamental reading comprehension win out. So he then rolls one die and gets +1 str for his Archon.

The game then opens and I have first turn. LOS is blocked because of my stupid deployment, so I shoot the missiles that I can. I fire first at his Raider with Lelith in it. I really had no answer to her, other than taking her out of the equation by wrecking her ride. I smoked her raider with a well placed shot. It blows up and I put 8 wounds on the squad inside, he then makes 6 5+ saves.



Oh well, I can live with that.

This is the point that I realize he has 2 of the 4 Raiders with 11 models in them. What a joke. I'm wondering at this point if the guy even read his codex. Raiders can only transport 10 models. This way he gets the benefits of the 10 man squad, and he has room to carry around his heavy hitters, namely Lelith and the Archon. I don't want to hear him whine and cry about it, especially since he was complaining about losing his Raider already. So I let it slide.

But did I make the right decision? It is a friendly pick-up game, do I call the guy out on it? Is he trying to cheat, or is he just ignorant of the rules? Would I do him a favor by pointing out the correct rules, or will I just ruffle his feathers some more and make the game less enjoyable for the both of us? I suppose we will never know, we just don't have the technology.

So my shooting is over, and he then turbo-boosts his Raiders directly towards me. He has the two warrior squads come right at me, but his Archon takes a more indirect approach. He then wants to fire at me out of all the transports. Correct me if I am wrong, but open-topped or not I thought you can't fire at all when you are going flat out. I start to look in the book for the relevant rules, and he starts complaining again. I don't know where to look exactly for them, in the vehicle shooting rules, or the skimmer movement rules, so I decide not to throw my brick of dice at the dude and let this one slide as well. He kills a few devastators with his shooting, nothing too serious.


(Archons ride is over to the left)

My second turn everything from reserve comes in. This is the first time this has ever happened to me. And even better, nothing mishaps! I am learning after all how to place units and judge distances better. Everything drops in with good melta range all around and my Baal out-flanks on from the correct edge and all is looking well.



I will later come to realize my mistake in letting the Archon alone. I proceed to fire my Blood Lance at both his tanks, getting penetrating hits on both. He rolls his saves from flat out movement and gets a 3 and 4 and tells me they both save. I just have to laugh to myself at this point. I know where to find this rule in the book so I pull it out and show him.

Again, is he cheating or does he just not know the rules? Is he trying to take advantage of me, or just an inexperienced player? I don't know. I'm the type of person that would rather give the benefit of the doubt and let the game go smoothly, rather than get into a fight about toy soldiers.

So I blow up both the raiders with all the melta, and gun down some of the survivors as well with my pistols. I can't draw LOS to his Raider with the Archon with my missiles, so it gets ignored another turn. My devs instead choose to fire at the stranded squad of his in the ruins with Lelith. I don't really want to scatter onto my own troops, because even just one unsaved wound hurts in a combat squad. So I played it safe and maybe killed one warrior on the opposite side of the board.

So that ended turn 2 for both of us. I'm going to cut this post in half; I don't want to loose some of the important points in the wall of text.

Let's talk about sportsmanship then. What are the prevailing opinions out there regarding what happened? Do you interrupt the game to set the dude straight. Do you risk the game running smoothly to show that you know the rules better than the other guy? When do you make the jump from "this guy needs to learn the game" to "this guy is a cheater weasel"? And can I chalk this up to petty vindictiveness, because my sub-par foot Terminator list curb stomped his Eldar? In addition, I don't want to get a "rules lawyer" label in the store. I'm a relative newcomer there, and this dude has been playing there awhile and seems to know everyone else. I'd like to be able to play games in the future, but I'd also like to play by the rules.

I'd like to hear your thoughts, because I don't know that I handled it the right way. Chime in with your collective wisdom please. Inquiring minds would like to know!

And keep your eyes peeled to see the exciting conclusion to this riveting game! Will those Incubi get their revenge in the end? Or will your intrepid hero end the game with a well placed missile to the Archon's measly face? Tune in next week, same Blood Angel time, same Blood Angel channel!

Michael, Capt of the 8th

New Blood Angels - Playtest Battle Report Video

Here is something that Rob Baer sent into me a while ago, I thought you all would enjoy it. Jawaballs

Hey guys, MBG back again with my first Blood Angels Playtest Video. We tried out the following list vs. my Mech guard.

Overall it was a good learning experience for what the new 'Angels are capable of, and how to go about it.

I like the fast moving vehicles, and the psykers, but I dont like the lack of long range fire. However I dont think I'll be able to get around the long range fire part, as my guts telling me the more competitive builds will be all out aggro assault.

1850 Mech Angels

• Librarian w/ Blood Lance, Shield of Sanguinius
• Brother Corbulo
• Furioso LIbrarian Dreadnought, BL SS
• Furioso LIbrarian Dreadnought, BL SS, Drop Pod
• Assault Squad 5 Man- Melta, P Fist, Razorback Las/Plas
• Assault Squad 5 Man- Melta, Razorback Las/Plas
• Assault Squad 5 Man- Melta, Razorback Las/Plas
• Assault Squad 5 Man- Melta, Razorback Las/Plas
• Baal Predator
• Baal Predator
• Baal Predator 

---

The basic idea of the list is to rush forward and pound the heck out of your enemy. The single Librarian model hangs out in a razorback and gives everything a 5+ cover save.

It was a good starting point to jump in on the angels, and use some of their special stuff, however I think the direction this list will end up taking is more assault troops with jump packs and enough armor just to screen them.




Game 2, same lists.




-MBG

So what do you think of the Battle Report? I tried to snazz it up a bit with some graphics, but am far from video mastery at this point.

Battle Report: Blood Angels vs Chaos Marines 1850

I went to my first tournament with the new codex over the weekend at The Unknown Comics and Games in Scranton, PA and had a great time! I want to begin by confirming what we already know... BA are Rock Hard. Here is game one.

My list:
Mephiston
2x Sanguinary Priest
3 Razorback assault squads
meltas, power weapons, 2x assault cannons, 1x TL Las
scout squad
fist and combi melta
3x Baal pred, 2 asscan 1 flamer, 1 heavy flamers 2 heavy bolters
2x Auto can preds with Las sponsons
1x vindicator

Chaos list:
Lots of plague marines, khorne berzerkers, and regular CSM.
Land Raider
Kharn
Full las pred
demon prince
rhinos
vindicator

Mission: 5 loot counters
Deployment: 12"

So, I won the roll to go first, and took the honor. I deployed, mostly in the middle. The objectives were set up in a triangle on the left, one in the center and one on the right. I flank marched my scouts and 3 preds.

My plan was simple. Ram that vindicator right up the middle with Mephiston hiding in it's ass. Support him with ass can fire and corral the enemy towards the objectives placed near the edges, and bring in the preds and scouts to mow them down.

Turn 1:
I open up with shooting at Rhinos and his Las pred. The pred is immobilized and I stun some rhinos. I ignored his Land Raider completely, and went towards the left. It would be a couple turns before I would have to deal with it. The Vindicator moved up 12" and fired, failing to do any damage, but it got his attention. Mephiston was hiding behind it. He tried to sneak a couple rhinos up on my left side towards objectives.

On his turn, not a lot happened. He returned fire but failed to do much damage. He moved up his transports on the left and popped smoke.

Turn 2:
I committed myself to destroying the two transports on the left filled with chaos marines and khorne berzerkers. I pumped all of the shots I had into them, destroying one and weapon destroying the other. Only my scouts came on that turn, and are the ones who popped the transport with the combi melta. So now I was faced with a decision. ASsault the scouts into the berzerkers, or try to escape! They would surely get cut down next turn. On the assault, Mephiston had jumped over to assault one of the squads, and got in on them, killing most of them. The scouts assaulted the other squad. I cant quite remember the exact details of this huge scrum at this point. Two scouts end up dieing thanks to Feel no Pain from my priest and they are locked in.

On his turn, we will get right to the assault, because aside from our tanks trying to snipe each other, shooting no longer mattered in this game. I did blow off the turret to his las tank though. In the assault, he brought in a demon lord that spawned out of one of his sergeants. Despite the fact that the sergeant was locked in combat, the lord moved out of that combat, and charged mephiston. Not sure if that was legal, but it made me happy because that was exactlly where I wanted him. I had to attack the squad since I was previously locked in combat with them, and was hoping to put free wounds on the demon. I failed to kill them all though. The fist survived. The demon scored a wound on meph, and the fist scored two. They would be locked in. Meanwhile, the scouts are fighting for their lives! I jumped in another assault squad to help him out with the berzerkers.

Turn 3:
On my shooting, my flame tank finally made it over to the middle of the table and was primed for laying down some hurt on his dev squad. My baal preds had been shooting futilely at his plague marines.

In the assault, mephiston decides to end the demon's life, and does. This forces a leadership test on the sergeant who also runs and is killed. Mephiston consolidates over to try to save the scout. I have to be honest here, I don't remember if they were simple CSM or Khorn Berzerkers, OR if this happened on turn 2 or 3. SO I will just compile the rest of this assault here.

Mephiston jumped into the next assault and saved the scout sergeant. I think this was all backed up a bit allowing him to do that on turn 3. Any way...

Turn 4:
He had moved his LR up now and was about to disgorge them on the next turn. I jumped over there with Mephiston and assaulted his Plague marines, killing 6. The scout jumped into a razor back and they high tailed it out of there while they could to go claim an objective. My other assault squad moved to claim an objective. My last assault squad moved all the way to the right to claim one. Some where in this mess, I lost an assault squad, I think to the squad that was locked in with the squads that the demon came out of. I really need to make more video during these games, but I get wrapped up in them!

On his turn, Kharn and the Berzerkers unload from the LR and pile in on Meph. He tried to move a rhino over to try to contest, but it got immobilized on terrain. Mephiston is forced to attack the plaguers, and kills them all, but is finally killed by Kharn. He rolled to fix the rhino, and did!

Turn 5:
It has come down to this. I had one assault squad using an immobile Baal as cover and trying to claim an objective at the top of a triangle of objectives. The bottom left one was contested by a razorback, but Kharn and his squad destroy it, claiming that one. The bottom right of the triangle my scout was claiming from inside a razor. The 4th objective went unclaimed, and the 5th I controlled. I managed to immobilize his rhino again with shooting, so was not really concerned with it contesting. At this point, I controlled 3 and he controlled 1. The die roll? Game goes on.

Turn 6:
I had been shooting at his berzerkers and Kharn for 2 turns now and whittling them down. There were only a few left. He destroyed my Baal with his Land Raider. And tank shocked my squad at the top of the triangle with a rhino, and they failed. (Unfortunately, I forgot until after that this squad was fearless due to rolling a 1 on the Red Thirst, they would have actually not fallen back.)

Now the game would end again on a random roll. I controlled 2 and he controlled one. The die roll? Game continues.

Turn 7:
I failed to destroy Kharn and his berzerkers, and they managed to spread out between two objectives and claim them both. At the end of the game, He held two and I held two. Great game man!

Summary:
I know, it was a convoluted batrep. I have been out of it for a while and forgot to pull out the cam... all day. But the essense of the game is there. A slug fest ending in a draw. Cant complain about that!

The star of the game was definitely Mephiston. He destroyed a demon prince, a squad of Berzerkers, a squad of CSM, and a squad of Plague marines. I took the combined might of a full squad of berzerkers and Kharn to finally bring him down, while he was distracted with plague marines.

So, point one, Mephiston is boss. To all of you BA band wagon jumpers out there, or veterans who cant get past the fact that he is not an IC, get over it. He is truly a monster. Use him smart, keep a priest nearby for when he rolls those silly 1s, and he will rock. But what do I know, I'm only Jawaballs!

Point two: Blood Angels get way more for less. You heard it hear first... don't waste the points on Sanguinary guard, vanguard or Death Company. You can get the job done with assault squads and priests. Sure they are pretty units, and powerful, but smart players can figure out how to use the assault squads effectively and win games with them. If I had to choose between a 200+ point Sanguinary Guard squad, and a 5 man RAZ with PW, Melta and ASs cans on the raz for 180ish, give me the troops baby!

During this tournament, I fought two huge Chaos armies in a row, decked out for assault. Both squads had multiple Berzerker squads, plague marines, and variants from there, T-sons and CSM squads. In both cases, I was fighting upwards of 40+ hard units, and I have a total of 23 infantry size bases on the table including Mephiston and 5 scouts. To say the least, I am not tooled out for prolonged assaults, but I held my own in both games, getting a draw that should have been a win, and in game two, a win.

Blood Angels are for real boys! In the hands of a smart player, this codex will wreck. Game on.

Jawaballs

EDIT:
Oh, the only exception to not taking veterans would be Honor Guard. They are cheaply priced enough to not have them be too much more than an assault squad. For 195 points you can take an HG with a Razorback, power weapon and meltagun. That is only 15 points more than my RAZ squad but they are veterans. BUT they come with a priest. Subtract the cost of the priest you would have had to take normally, and you are saving 50 points. That makes them a steal. You can drop a priest, and throw the Ass Can on the razor and give the squad another upgrade.

One further is that they do not take up an HQ slot, but count as HQ on the Force Org chart. Why is this important? In this tournament, in all three games you scored bonus points for clearing out an entire slot. So killing mephiston earned my opponent two bonus points since he was my only HQ. With an HG with transport, now he has to kill the squad, transport and Meph to get the bonus points. It makes it harder to surrender those bonus points, and adds another element that you can use to thwart those blood thirsty opponents by forcing them to commit way more resources than they would normally need to take down the transport.

Just imagine, it is game 5 of a major GT and you are in it to win it. A draw would hand the win to the other guy because he has more tie breaker points. The game is coming down to such a close result, that it will come down to bonus points to decide the winner. You tally up the results... it comes down to the HQ slot. You killed his two commanders and earned the 1 bonus point and take the lead. He counts up your HQ slot, Mephiston... dead... Honor Guard... dead... "A Draw... I WIN!" Sorry sucka... you missed that weaponless razor back that slipped away and is now hiding in the corner of the table. That counts as part of the HQ slot and you had to kill it... the victory is mine. Blustery arguments and nerd rage ensue... you get the picture.

Of course, feel free to correct me if I am wrong on that HG transport counting as an HQ unit.

Battle Report: Jawaballs NEW BA vs IG

Jawaballs is back in the saddle! Finally I am able to get back into the club and get some game on. I played a game last night vs a guy named Rob at Battle for Salvation in White Plains, NY.

Jawaballs 1850 tournament list vs Middle range IG list. His list was not optimized for competition, but this was just testing for both of us any way.

Jawaballs:
Mephiston
RAZ squads x3, TL Ass Can x2, TL Las Can x1, Meltas, PW in two of them.
2 priests with PWs
3 Baal Preds 2x Heavy Bolters/Ass Can, 1x Flame storm/Heavy Flamers
2 Auto can/las can preds
1 vindicator
1 scout squad, combi melta and power fist

IG:
Psyker squad, master of fleet, etc.
Yarrik in chimera with ogryns
vendetta with 3 las and bolter sponsons with 10 vets inside, plasma and las cannon
vet squad on foot with las cannon
3x las cannon heavy weapon team
3 tanks, the long range demolisher cannon, the 20 shot cannon, and one more, cant remember the gun.
2 small vet squads deep striking with melta and plasma

Mission:
capture the flag bases

Deployment:
Dow

I won the die roll and took first turn. Sorry for lack of pictures due to dead cam! The board was heavily terrained with roman type ruins, lots of columns and ruined walls, an a huge colliseum style wall in the middle of the table. Very few lanes of fire that did not provide a cover save.

I deployed Mephiston right in the middle of the table behind the huge piece of colliseum impassible terrain. Next to him, blocking the only lane of fire from the other side of the table, I placed an Ass can RAZ with melta, pw and priest.

He deployed his Lascan team in cover on the right, with line of fire at my RAZ. 12" away, he deployed his command squad with the psykers behind terrain. LOS was blocked completely to Mephiston. He put the remainder of the troop squad in a ruined temple on the left board edge.

Turn One:
My stuff started coming on. I flank marched the 3 baals and the scouts. The scouts sole purpose is to come on behind those pesky tanks that hide in the corners and pop them. Failing that, they will assault squishy units, or take objectives. They are my Jwolf throw away squad. Cheap, but strong enough to have an effect on my opponent's planning.

Right of the bat, Mephiston used Wings of Sanguinius and jumped over the ruin. He landed just a few inches away from the psyker battle squad, and ran to assure assault range with fleet. The RAZ moved up 12" towards the entrenched Heavy weapon team. Coming from the table edge, the TL Las RAZ moved onto my objective and set up its gun on my right corner. The Asscan RAZ moved in on the left, going 18" from my edge and using terrain to block LOS. Next turn he would be in attack range. My vindicator moved 18" and took up position near where Mephiston was behind the ruin. My Las preds also moved 18" to take up shooting position for turn two. At this point I had great lines of fire, giving up very little targets for return fire. My fast tanks would be able to leave their cover and shoot up isolated units.

Poor Rob would not know what hit him! :)

So the RAZ shoots up his Heavy weapons team, dealing two wounds. Question, when shooting heavy weapon teams do you take off whole bases first? Or split the wounds up. It was not very important so we played it that he gave a wound to two different bases and didnt have to take one off.

Being DoW and BA tanks lacking Search Lights, none of my other tanks could fire. But this was good in a way, since none of his could target my RAZ.

On my assault phase, things got bloody fast. Mephiston activated his Preferred Enemy power, and waded into the IG Command. 5 of the models died instantly, leaving a commander with a fist and a psyker. The commander managed to hit back and actually wounded Mephiston! He would be purged for his insolence. They made their LD test to stay in combat.

On his turn, he knew he had to be decisive with his fire power. He brought on his heavy tanks, one on each corner and one in the middle. He reserved his deep striking vets and flank marched his Vendetta. Yarrik with his mutant body guard came on in the right corner, trying to save his heavy weapon team. But this was a VERY dark night. Three times he targeted my razor back, and three times failed to destroy it. But on his fourth time, he nailed it and exploded it. But the occupants made their LD test and saves.

In the asault, Mephiston finished off the command squad then consolidated back towards the middle of the table on his edge. He walked right past a group of ratlings who were huddled around a camp fire cooking sausages. His only reply to their "ey govna, want some breakfast?" was a derisive snort. His force weapon would not be wasted on children and cooks.

UGH! I just tried to publish the batrep and it failed to process, I lost every thing after this! I spent 45 minutes typing it... :( Bah.

Ok, time to get back to work.

Turn Two:
Mephiston activated his wings again and flew over a tank to land between the tank and his chimera. My RAZ who had their transport exploded moved up with their melta gun to get in range for a shot and assault. The only reserves to come on was my flamer tank. My RAZ moved up 12" on the left and disembarked the melta to try to pop his 20 shot tanke that came onto the board behind the temple. The flamer tank lined up the squad in the temple for maximum carnage... they thought they were safe! My shooting opened up and things started dieing. Except for the chimera. The melta failed to penetrate and Mephiston's plasma gun backfired. My lascannons destroyed his tank in the center and also, with a lucky shot and a failed cover save, the one in the left corner. The flame tank put the squad in the temple to the torch. 16 wounds later, they were all crispy critters and climbing out of the holes in the walls on fire. Mephiston ordered his marines to let them burn. The Emperor offers no mercy to heretics. The vindicator moved out from behind its cover to shoot at his tank in the right corner, but missed.

In my assault, Mephiston charged and hit the chimera with 4 Str 10 shots... but failed to do more then a stun. I dual assaulted it with my RAZ, who also dragged the heavy weapon team into assault. They failed to do more then stun the chimera as well, and only killed a couple of heavy weapon guardsmen.

On his turn, he realized that things were going VERY badly. He brought on his two deep striking vet squads and his Vendetta. The vets came down. one landed too far away from one of my preds to really hurt it, and only immobilized it. The other scattered off the table while trying to get close enough to my base and pop my TL Las Razor holding it. He scattered to safety first, but was not close enough to pop the tank so rerolled. The next roll sent him off the table. Bad luck. The Vendetta blew both las cans off the other pred. That would be just about all the damage he would deal.

On his assault, Yarrik and the ogryns disembarked. Their shooting failed to hurt Meph, so they assaulted. Mephiston, the wise one he is, showed his contempt for the IG commisar and focused on the mutants instead. 2 of them died instantly. This was enough to force LD tests, which yarrik failed. He ran from the battle leaving Meph with the two ogryns that dumbly stumbled and evaded mephistons blade from blind luck.
The assault squad was having trouble dealing with the heavy weapons team. They only managed to kill two, and they made their test the brave bastards! His ratlings started using their sniper guns to cook hotdogs over the burning tank.

Turn Three:
It would all end soon.

So one of my Ass can preds came on into range to shoot the vendetta. My RAZ on the left got back into their transport and it moved 12" to fire on the vendetta as well. The Vindicator turned around and vaporized the vets who deep striked to immobilize my pred. They turned into red mist in a nanosecond. My ass cans opened up on the vendetta, exploding it! 4 of the vets inside perished. Oh, my scouts came on too. They came in behind his last tank. The melta shot missed though.

In the assault, mephiston and the RAZ finished off their handi work. The scouts assaulted the tank and stunned it.

On his turn we threw in the towel. His ratlings finally decided to attack and shot at Mephiston, but failed to hurt him. Turn four would see me wipe the table clean so we did not bother.

After the game we discussed tactics and his list. First of all, it was daunting for him to face wave after wave of my stuff coming on. All of it hurt and was very good at what I used it for. I did not even get my 3rd Baal onto the table! The las preds were superb offering me the luxury of range that I have never had. I can finally reach out and touch my opponent.

I suggested that he drop the ogryns and buy another vendetta instead. Place all those vets who deep striked into the Vendetta. And place his psyker squad into the chimera. Also I suggested he replace the 20 shot tank with one of the other two he fielded. And he should drop Yarrik. A couple of quick and easy changes would make his list way more powerful.

The key to victory was him deploying his psyker squad too close to Mephiston. On turn one I was in his ranks and slaughtering guardsmen. With nothing to slow down my reserves, they came precisely when I needed them and worked to maximum effect.

All in all it was a good test for my new Blood Angels, especially since I have very little experience using a psyker and I will need to master Mephiston if I plan on winning in Vegas!

Jawaballs

Battle Report: Reader submitted. BA vs Eldar

Ryan has sent me a few batreps, but this one takes the cake! Well written man. Keep em coming!

Hey Jawaballs. Here is a Battle report me and a mate had while watching your broadcast on Sunday. He included 12 of these great diagrams. I am posting the last one here just for reference. Maybe if I can find a few minutes this week I will add more. Great stuff!


Its a bit long so i understand if you cant put it on your blog but i thought you might like reading it.

Blood Angels Vs Craftworld Alaitoc
1840 Points

Army Lists:
Blood Angels

Mephiston
Corbulo
5 Honour guard – Company Champion – Sang Priest – Tech Adept – Standard bearer
5 Terminators – Power fists and Storm bolters – Sarg with Power Sword
Venerable Dread with Multimelta and Close combat arm – Extra Armour
Venerable Dread with Assault Cannon and Close combat arm – Extra Armour
Tactical 1 – 10 Man – Missile – Flamer – Sergeant chainsword – Combat squads
Tactical 2 – 10 Man – Las cannon – Sergeant Power fist – Combat squads
Speeder Multimelta
Rhino 1 – Extra Armour
Rhino 2 – Extra Armour
Razorback – Extra Armour – Twin-linked Lascannon
Drop Pod
4 Death Company

Eldar

Eldrad
Yriel
Banshees 1 special guy
Harlequins 1 special guy
Wave Serpent – Not 100% sure on weapons
5 Rangers i think upgraded to Pathfinders
4 Jetbikes 1 with a special weapon
20 Guardians with a warlock and Brightlance platform
Vyper – Not sure on weapons
Wraithlord – Missile launcher – Lance – Flamer – shuriken catapult i think
Fire Prism Falcon – Brightlance and scatter laser i think

Mission and Deployment
Seize Ground – 4 Objectives
Pitched Battle

I Won the roll and passed first turn to my mate Adam. He deployed about half of his army. Counting on his ability to be able to rearrange a few units after i deploy.
I deployed everything except for my terminators and melta dread in a drop pod. Rhinos were placed bottom left supported by my assault cannon dread. Power fist close combat squad in the right rhino and Corbulo with the death company in the other. Mephiston +HG were placed on a hill right of centre guarded by the missile and las cannon combat squads and lastly my speeder was placed bottom right supported by the razorback with the assault flamer combat squad.

He did his special roll and was allowed to rearrange 3 units + put in his rangers using infiltrate. He mostly grouped everything near his objectives.

Turn 1
Eldar:
He started his turn by moving Eldrad over to the craters and joining the rangers hiding there. Then followed that up with firing at my rhinos and blowing off a storm bolter.

Blood Angels:
I then ran my rhinos up failing to overcharge the engines but not stalling. I moved my speeder flat out towards the centre of the map and also ran my Assault Cannon Dread up between my rhinos. I then unleashed the Assault cannon on the guardians and killed 1 and fired my rhinos storm bolter at the rangers failing to wound any.

Turn 2
Eldar:
He rolled for reserves. Thanks to Yriel everything came on. Wraithlord top left, Fire prism Middle and Jetbikes along with Wave serpent top right. Only other movement was his Vyper around behind my rhino. His Wave serpent fired on my Razorback and failed to hit. Jetbikes fired on my lascannon combat squad on the hill and i made the saves. The fire prism scattered off mephiston and the honour guard. The Vyper managed to turn my rhino into a wreck while he blew the storm bolter off my other rhino with either the falcon or wraithlord.

Blood Angels:
Rolled for reserves. Nothing. I took some shots at the Wave serpent and managed to immobilise it while moving my speeder back over to the right. A missile exploded on the Fire Prism and managed to shake the crew stopping it shooting for a turn. The combat squad that disembarked from the wrecked rhino were breifly touched by the black rage managing to sink a shot from a bolter into the Vyper turning it into a wreck in an act of vengeance. The Dread continued to move up taking more kills on the guardians and landing 1 wound on Yriel. Corbulo lead his group of death company into battle against Eldrad and his rangers. 4 rangers fell while Eldrad felled one of the death company but watching the the fury infront of him, he called a retreat. The driver of the now empty rhino decided to ram the falcon in front of him, but failed to build up enough speed.

Turn 3
Eldar:
The immobilised Wave serpent opened up on the speeder and blew it to smitherenes. Seeing this the jetbikes moved forward but failed to land any hits. The fire prism moved flat out towards my dread to avoid any more missiles. Surviving the ram from the rhino the falcon flew over the guardians and unleashed a lance blowing off the dreads assault cannon. Eldrad seeing danger too close ran off the battlefield with the rest of his rangers. The wraithlord moved up to wreck the last rhino and Yriel seeing Eldrad leave the field moved and assaulted Corbulo and the death company killing two of them.

Blood Angels:
The terminators teleport on the field and unloaded their storm bolters upon the jetbikes blowing away three of them while watching the fourth fly into the distance. On the other side of the field a drop pod lands and the melta dread fires at the falcon just missing it. The razorback fires on the wave serpent stunning the crew. Mephiston gets excited and fails his psychic test deciding it safer to run towards the enemy. The powerfist squad assaults the back of the fireprism but fails to make any significant damage. Without its assault cannon the dread turns on Yriel and adds it weight to the assault but Yriel proves his strength killing the last of the death company.

Turn 4
Eldar:
The wraithlord moves into the fray killing Corbulo but receiving a wound itself while the dreadnought loses its closecombat arm squeezing the life force out of Yriel. The Fireprism moves away from danger moving to the bottom left corner. Fearing another shot from the melta dread the falcon moves toward the centre with its sights on the lord of death. While the terminators are celebrating the harlequins disembark from their down transport flooding upon the terminators leaving none surviving.

Blood Angels:
Seeing the terminators killed the flamer assault squad leaves its transport to take up position around the objective in cover. The dreadnought manages to finish of the wraithlord consolidating towards the guardians while the melta dread and power fist squad assault them. 4 space marines fall to the guardians and warlock while only killing 3 but the sergeant showing know fear stays in the fight. Seeing his blood brothers doing so well Mephiston calls upon his vast psychic power annnnnnnd fails..........again....... so they once again move towards the falcon. Over their heads a missiles flys and ruins the grav field of the falcon immobilising it.

Turn 5
Eldar:
With the guardians being overwhelmed they decide the battle is over and leave quickly after taking more casualties. the fire prism moved towards the centre of the map. Out of the immobilised falcon the banshees fall upon the lord of death and his honour guard. each side loses 2 wounds and draws combat.

Blood Angels:
The 2 dreads and combat squad take up positions around the eldar objectives. The missile and lascannon marines draw their weapons upon the fire prism and stun its crew. Mephiston angered by losing 2 of his honour guard finally calls upon his psychic powers and turns the rest of the banshees to dust and consolidates back towards his command position.

Final Comments
With only a stunned fire prism and a squad of harliquins left Adam conceded defeat. It was a very interesting game but Adam was very unluck with his rolls. speaking of rolls. I rolled 11 twice in a row for mephiston psychic powers guh. Not your typical Blood Angels list but it is all i have to play with at the moment and i think they fought very well.

Thanks for reading

Ryanjsmall

Battle Report: Reader submitted. BA vs IG

Hey folks! Ok, I am working my way through a backlog reader submissions and other businesss. Here is another batrep! Enjoy.

Brothers,

I’m afraid I bring grave news, a patrol of the glorious Blood Angels were defeated by the perfidious Imperial Guard. The survivors are even now doing penance to clean their souls.

The setting: 500 point battle, minimum 1 HQ, 2 Troops, annihilation

The Blood Angels (9 year old general playing his GW Academy passing out game)
- Brother Corbulo
- 5 Man Assault Squad with Power Fist & Rhino with extra amour
- 10 Man Tactical Squad with LasCannon
- 2 Death Company with jump packs

The Perfidious Guard (GW store manager)
- 1 Command Squad with a Primors Psycher (never even found out what he can do)
- 1 Veteran Squad with Vox & meltagun in a Chimera with multi laser
- 1 squad with Vox & flamer in a Vendetta (3 twin linked lascannons)
- 1 squad with Vox and flamer

(How is that balanced? 1.5 squads of BA with a Rhino vs. 4 squads of IG with a multi-laser Chimera and a Vendetta with 3 twin lascannons!!!! Who is the muppet that makes up these points costs?)

Blood Angels win the dice and go first. BA’s set up with Tac squad in a building to the left, Rhino with Corbs and RAS behind a building on the right, DC tucked in behind the Rhino.

IG set up with a squad in a building to the left, with the Chimera behind it, Cmnd in a building on the right with the Vendetta on the ground behind it.

Turn 1
- Rhino fails its overcharge and stalls. Lascannon shoots at the command squad and misses (a regular event….)
- IG
o Vendetta storms forward and fires on the Rhino (3 twin linked lascannon) – 1 dead Rhino, all BA’s bail out
o Chimera storms forward and fires on the assault squad killing one BA (killed 2 but Corbs brings one back)
o All other shooting misses

Turn 2
- Corbs and the assault squad moved into cover, lascannon missed again
- IG
o Vendetta moved forward and gravchute deployed its squad on top of the Tac squad
o Its squad fires on the Tac squad and kills one
o Chimera moved forward and deployed its veteran squad beside Corbs
o Chimera then fired on corbs and killed 1 assault trooper
o The squad fires as well and kills one more

Things are looking even worse

Turn 3
- Tac squad fires on the Vendetta, missing with everything (it was gently explained to the 9 year old that maybe the IG squad standing next to them would have been a better target)
- Corbs and his squad fired on the Veteran squad, killing two and then assaulted them killing 3. IG guard kill the sergeant in reply but break, are caught and killed.
- Death Company try to assault the Rhino but fail
- IG
o Vendetta fires on Corbs and kills the last of the Assault Squad
o Loads of firing, all misses or saves except for two Tac squad which are killed by a flamer

Turn 4
- Death Company chew on the Chimera and fail to do damage,
- Lascannon misses Vendetta (again)
- Corbulo lobs a Krak grenade at the Vendetta and actually damages it (no shooting for one turn)
- Tac company assault the guard squad next to them killing 4 for no loss, IG run, are caught and die

- IG
o Vendetta runs away and hides behind a building
o Chimera fire on DC killing one
o IG squad fire on the DC killing the second one (fire by ranks is just mad!)

Turn 5
- Corbs runs into the building with the Tactical squad
- Lascannon misses again
- IG
o Chimera, the Vendetta and a sniper fire at Corbs but he survives

Game carries on two further turns with no losses on either side


Thoughts
As far as I can see the BA couldn’t have done a whole lot more – apart from the bad luck (Lascannon continually missing and the Rhino stalling on turn one) he only made one bad decision when the Tac squad fired on the Vendetta rather than the IG squad gravchuted in next to them.

I can’t see how BA are competitive at 500 points with a legal formation. The IG Command squad and 2nd squad did pretty much nothing for the whole game, and with the remainder the BA force was wiped out. Whereas last week my other son played a 500 point game with Tyranids and almost won (would have won but for poor rolling with a Tervigon). Maybe the new codex will make a difference but I can’t honestly see how 500 points gives you enough to beat IG? In particular the Vendetta was just mad, jumping around all over the battlefield and unleashing 3 twin linked lascannons on everything! In discussion afterwards the general consensus is that the only marine 500 point which is competitive is a librarian with loads of scouts – but of course we can’t do that as scouts are elite, sigh.

One picture attached of turn 2.

Main thing though, my son enjoyed it and just enough silly things happened (Lascannon missing every shot, Corbs damaging the Vendetta with a Krak grenade) that he kept laughing the whole way through and now wants to destroy the guard with a decent amount of points.

Keep em coming!

Jawaballs

Reader submitted Batrep: Blood Angels March On!

Here is another reader submitted batrep! Keep em coming. :)

Here is another Batrep played yesterday.

Battle For the Moon of Wigg
Assault Mission
Attacker + 10%
BA vs. IG
6 Turns Max

This was an assault mission with the attacker having 10% more attacking forces. The Defender was allowed 1 fortified position and a hastily prepared position the attacker had to capture both to win.

Defender 2000 pts
Attacker 2250pts(BA)

My forces:

Dante
Corbulo
3 x 5 man Assault Squads PW Rhino Xarmor PMSB
1 x 8 man Death Company CS Rhino Xarmor PMSb
1 x Ven Death Dread Xarmor hvy flamer drop pod
2 x Death Company Dreads Xarmor hvy flamer drop pod
3 x Baal Preds Xarmor hvy bolter PMSB

Now I do not know a lot about IG here’s what I could see.

3 x Commanders/Squads
3 x Leman Russ’s Battle Cannon’s Lascannon hvy bolters
3 lascannon squads
1 x 30 man squad
He had a bunch of infantry in the bunker armed with auto cannons, Lascannons, melta guns.

He set up across the board 2 leman russ on his left with 2 lascannon squads in front of one of the objectives(Hasty prepared). He put the 30 man squad in the objective and the other in the bunker.

Defender set up first and went first, he also set up the terrain he set up some kind of barrier on the left which would mask his forces from me, but also mask me from him. I reserved all my units.

Turn 1

Nothing happen he did not move anything and just sat there.

Turn 2

Again nothing to do for him, so I rolled for reserves and got six units to come on. So I brought on the Dreads, Dante, Corbulo/Death Company and an Assault squad.

My only mistake was bringing the Dreads down in front of his 2 Lascannon squads and commander. I didn’t realize that they had 2 wounds each. So after the dreads had finished firing and didn’t do much I have to say causing only a couple of casualties and taking out 1 leman russ and stunning the other. Dante and the Rhinos moved up under cover.

Turn 3

He opened up everything he could at the Dreads and because he had go orders in that made everything twin linked. One by one the dreads succumbed to his fire power all knocked out in one turn. Even the Ven Dread he rolled a 6 on a pen hit so I made him reroll and he rolled a bloody 5(yes chaps I am from across the pond, but living here). So things did not look good.

On my turn everything else came on. So I advanced along the left, I had placed the drop pods in such a way that he had no line of sight. Dante followed the Death Company and the Assault squad Rhino’s up and was in range by next turn to assault.

Turn 4.

He had very few targets so he started to move his stuff from his right flank over to the action. He tried to shoot at a Pred and Death company rhino but did nothing. On my turn rolling for OE 1 pred decided to stall while only 2 rhinos and one pred got the OE. So I continued to move up. The Death Company Rhino failed a dangerous terrain test so I got them out and also unloaded the Assault Squad. Dante moved up to assault one of the lascannon squads, and I moved the 2 mobile preds up into range of his russ.
Dante assaulted and killed the squad and then consolidated back into cover.

Turn 5

He continued to move up his units from the left. For his firing he concentrated on the Death Company and Assault squad causing 2 casulties on the Assault squad and none on the Death Company. On my turn I tank shocked the 30 man squad, who passed their morale so moved out of the way. I moved everything else up(rolling the OE the same Pred stalled out again the others didn’t). I move Dante and the Death company up ready to take the objective in assault, and the assault company to assault his tank. The Pred’s fired and knocked out the Battle Cannon on his tank Dante and the Death company unloaded on the 30 man squad killing 6. Then they assaulted the squad the Death Company hitting one of his command squads at the same time. Once the dust settled he had 8 men left in the big squad and none in the command squad. Needless to say they ran of the board leaving the objective in my hands. I consolidated towards the bunker. The Assault squad took out the Russ with a melta bomb.

Turn 6

He fired at the stalled pred doing nothing, at the Death Company killing 2 he wasn’t having much luck with his to hit rolls, well they are guard.
I moved the Preds up into range of the Bunker trying to knock it out but only succeeding in stunning the occupants. I tank shocked his other las squad and they ran of the board. Dante moved with the assault squad and contested the second objective.

So in the end another victory for the good guys as I had one objective and contesting another. What I could of done different, I should of landed the dreads in front of the bunker using the drop pods to block LOS and fire all the flamers into the bunker, still I’ve only been playing for a year and still learning.

Reader submitted Batrep: More dead orks!

Here is a reader submitted batrep! Keep em coming guys.

Blood Angels vs. Orks 5th Battle in the Ineptius Sector.

Blood Angels List

Dante

Corbulo

2 x 5 Man Assault Squad PW MB

Rhino Xarmor

1 x 10 Man Tactical Squad Melta gun, Lascannon PW

1 x Ven Death Company Dread Hvy Flamer Xarmor Drop Pod

1 x Death Company Dread Hvy Flamer Drop

2 x Baa Preds Hvy Bolter X Armour

9 x Death Company Chainsword Rhino Xarmor

Ork Army(as far as I can tell, don’t know much about orks except the only good ork is a dead ork.)

Ghazgul

Nob squad

3 lots of ard boyz

2 hvy weapons squads

1 dakka gun

1 Boyz squad

2 x 6 Defkopta squads

As I said I don’t know what else he had or what weapons he was equipped with Ghazgul I know had a Power claw.

I won the dice roll and let him go first and I reserved all my units as per usual.

It was a meeting engagement with 2 objectives 1 in each deployment zone.

Turn 1,

He had deployed across the board, with a heavy weapons squad guarding his objective backed up by a boyz squad. He deployed the dakka gun on a hill on his right, he kept 1 Defkopta squad in reserve to out flank. He moved both ard boyz up backed up by the other Defkpota squad. He also ran his troops.



Turn 2.

He continued to move up towards my objective and with running claimed it.

Nothing to fire at yet.

My turn reserves roll all of the dreads came down 1 drop pod scattered right by his Nobz squad as luck would have it. The Ven came down on target right by the objective in his zone and the other by his boyz squad. Does anybody like to smell of burn oks. Hvy Flamers and Meltas took out 2 Nobz, 3 hvy weapons and 10 boyz a good start. The Nobz made their morale, but the hvy weapons chaps took a runner all the way of the board.

The boyz didn’t have to take a morale test due to the mob rule.

Turn 3

His outflanking DefKoptas came on but on the wrong side of the board(Ha Ha). He fired a lot of stuff at the dreads one of them losing a combat arm and the Ven dread had him reroll a wrecked hit and it came up shaken(shrugged off thanks to extra armor, it really works you know). He then assaulted the Ven Dread with his Nobz(out of cover) and his boyz assaulted the other dread. The Ven dread killed of his Nobz and the other dread killed of another 4 boyz. He did nothing in return rolling hits with his power fisted nob but only got shaken results again.

My turn reserves on came Dante, Corbulo/Death company, both Assault Squads and the Baals. I set the Rhinos in a little box type formation to hide Dante all deployed right by the objective. So now I was contesting both objectives. Ghazgul was close by with 30 ard boyz and I didn’t want Dante to get into it just yet. The Ven Dread and the other dread moved up to assault the boyz squad in combat with the 3rd. My Baal opened up on the closest Defkopta sqaud causing 3 dead and they promptly failed morale and ran. My Dreads assaulted and killed of the boyz squad.

Turn 4

He declared a Whaag and Ghazgul(who apparently in the turn he charges and the opponents assault phase has a invul save of 2+) moved up to assault Dante(thanks to the formation of the Rhinos he could only get Ghazgul and 3 guys in on the assault. His Dakka gun had been firing but not hitting anything. He had turbo boosted his outflanking defkopta squad and fired at one of the dread and immobilized him. Other than that his firing was ineffectual and he moved one of his squads back towards his objective. He still held mine but not for long. In his assault phase Dante caused 3 wounds on Ghazgul but he saved 2 of them with good Invul save, Dante took one wound. He then surrounded Dante with his boyz(oh dear doesn’t look to good for Dante.

On my turn the tactical squad came on and moved towards the objective in his zone and the dreads moved towards the Defkoptas and launched smoke.

Out come the Death company and one of the assault squads and assaulted Gahzgul and the boyz. The Baals fired on one of his squads not causing much thanks to terrible rolls. On the Assault though the Death Company and Assault squad proceed to wiped out his boyz squad Dante didn’t do anything(again bloody lousy dice rolls). He inflicted 4 wounds on Dante and I only managed to save 2 so Dante was down and out.



Turn 5.



He still concentrated fire on the dreads immobilizing another and destroying the flamer of the Ven. He fired a couple of things at the rhinos only destroying a storm bolter. In the continued assault I did 1 wound to Ghazgule he killed 4 death company.



My turn after rolling for overcharged engines one of the rhinos tank shocked his unit of the objective and they ran for the hills. Baals had better luck firing at one of his squads causing 12 casualties but they stuck around(one of the Baals became immobilized on difficult terrain crap!).

On the Assault phase I finally killed of Gahzgul but he took another 4 Death Company with him, and we consolidated towards the objective. The Tac squad moved up and took the objective in his zone(didn’t even get out of the Rhino.)



Turn 6

Last Turn

He fired at the Ven Dread and did nothing, he also killed of the last of the Death Company with his Dakka gun. His Defkoptas moved up to contest the objective.

My turn I move up the assault squads to the objective one of the Rhinos tank shocked his defkoptas and they ran. The Ven Dread assaulted what was left of one of his squads and did nothing and his power fist chap killed him of even with the reroll 6 then 5 what can you do.

The end result most his army was running for the hills I had both objectives so another victory for the good guys.

More to come.

I have to inform you man that you are in violation of Jawacopyright 202018 for using "More to come". :)

More to come...

Jawaballs