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Hey guys, I want to just do a very quick batrep... not really a full batrep because I've been experimenting a lot of different units lately and I also have some time restraints on me and as well I sold my Deathwatch (painted) army. So that being said I won't take many pics as I am re-painting the army from scratch and I hate unpainted batreps. That being said I wanted to do a quick reference for this game. We played an 1850 Maelstrom and for ONCE I got to play against Space Marines (very rare here). I mean at my local store there are a lot of marine players but they kind of hide out amongst themselves. But for tournie play not as much as you'd like to see. (Bloody xenos edition!) Back to the game... it will be a brief overview. In this experiment I took my normal CAD + BSSF, and I changed the list so many times I accidentally left out my Stalker Bolter squad, so I had to play 1850 without them. The true experiment was I wanted to play more games with the Culexus (I haven't used him in this army specifically and not played him in any army for quite a while, probably Ultra's last.) +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ So from memory the Blood Angels were using Traitor's hate formation. It actually looked okay on paper, as he had a "CAD" getting him some ObSec with Scouts parked in a bush, and a good sized squad of Grav Bikes, Multi Melta Attack Bikes, a bout 3 Pods of Troops with a Libby and .... the BEEF of the army was Dante and his magical ballet of pretty men in angel outfits which can Deep Strike and then Assault! Scary stuff. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ I did get first turn, he failed to grab it. The game was VERY much back and forth. I had two big key moments, and one scary moment: 1. I had a key alpha strike. I unleashed solo Missile Termies, Dread, and (believe it or not) a Rhino with an Infernus Heavy Bolter in it at his Multi Melta bikes. The main alpha though was the Pod with Captain, and Frag Cannon unleashing on the Grav Bikers: - This opening salvo may have saved me. - all but one biker dies, all but one Multi Melta Attack Bike dies. (it did take all the forces I had on the board to do it.) Ironically the last surviving members of each squad would live up until the last turn! (those boys know how to Jink!) 2. I FAIL to get KEY reserves in on T2. Reminding me for the Millionth time you cannot take this army without some form of reserve manipulation ( a bad design element of the BSSF). This is scary because in his T2, his Dante, pods, and 2 large squads of Sanguinary Guard come in and can assault. They get good reserve rolls, re rolls and only 1D6 Deviation! The Sanguinary Guard can and do assault the turn they come in. I got one squad shot up pretty good, and the Sanquinary Guard came in and just annihilated me. 3. My failure for reserves set up a bizzarre situation..... When I failed both rolls for my Pod + Aquila, I knew it was game over since I just watched two of his Sanquinary guard wipe some of my stuff... .so in an act of pure desperation I took my Infernus Hvy Bolter Kill Team, and "Angelis Beacon'd" them across into the heart of the kill zone without deviation. The funny thing is I was wishing so badly at this point that I had not taken that Infernus because I desperately needed a Frag Cannon. The Infernus template hit 7 of his Tacticals, and I rolled four 6's !! These would have been rends, and with the Frag cannon I would have had 14 hits. He failed enough saves, that the rest of the Infernus squad weapons mopped up the Tacticals giving me some breathing space, but what about the Sanguinary Guard? This is where the second big desperate act comes in..... ^This guy made Assassinorium Great Again! 4. The Culexus did 'okay' here but ripping buffs away was one thing, he just did okay enough to assist in turn 1 with killing his libby and assisting in the kill of the squad ,but the big moment is next turn... In the next turn the Culexus would wander up (north of this picture) and get 6 shoots from my psychic pool at his Sanquinary guard which were about to gank my Deathwatch Captain after smoking one of my squads. The Culexus was pro. He leveled his pistol and wacked 5 guard!!! This left only Dante in the squad. The other Sanguinary squad was in CC I believe at this point. 5. The Captain had a brave Deathwatch with a Stormshield who took two blows from Sanquinary Axes before falling. I made a key decision to try to hold on for one more turn..... I decide the Captain is the only one who can handle his turn's worth of attacks, and I take them all on the captain, he tanks all the 3+ power weapons and of all the axe attacks the Halo saved all but 1!!! Close call. 6. The rest of my squads come in (finally). But the Infernus squad is basically one shotted by Dante... no joke, that guy came in, wound up his axe and murdered the whole kill team.... BUT that left him standing in the open. (when your Deathwatch, you gotta know when to die.) In retaliation my Captain's remnant squad, and everything around him including the Culexus let it rip at Dante. He saved so much stuff... ridiculous. It was a simple special ammo poison round that saw Dante fail his 2+ save and die for Warlord kill. This gave me the lead for the first time in the game.... 7. The game was winding down. I had a few scattered units, and a few solo Termies rolling around, but had managed to kill off the rest of his army except for the Pods, and the scouts in the corner (which had no shot/effect all game). With that he conceded and what started as a very back and forth game got very hairy for a while and then concluded with the death of his Warlord. Conclusions: - Infernus: Still not sold. I thought it was doing okay in a Rhino, but because Deathwatch like to inherently get close and use every shot possible, this felt like a bad play. - Culexus. One of the stars of the game. Not that the Blood Angels really relied on anything Psychic wise, the Culexus was key in crippling one of his 2+ save Sanguinary guard.