Battle Report

[Escaflowne_Z]

Hey there, everyone. Played my fourth game today with the new codex, and was motivated enough to take some snaps. 1,750 points.

 

My force:

 

Captain Tycho and 9 Veterans in Rhino: combi-melta and two heavy flamers, sergeant with a PW.

 

Tactical Squad with Lascannon/PG.

Tactical Squad with PC/PG.

 

TAS with two hammers and 3 claws. Land Raider transport.

 

Furioso Dreadnought with HF and armor upgrades, in a drop pod.

Dreadnought with PC/HF.

 

Baal Predator with pintle SB.

 

His army was Dark Angels.

 

Belial, terminator Librarian with Force Barrier and the template power, and full terminator command squad, with a banner and the apothecary, and all of that in a LRC. Yep, 850 points in eight models. Madness! :P

 

Two tactical squads, each packing lascannons, flamers, and PF. These were combat squaded, half into Rhinos, half into shooting positions.

 

Two Vindicators.

Dreadnought with autocannons and ML.

 

Rolled up three objectives, which we used a Veritech fighter, my BA statue, and my roommate's carnifex to mark. Normal pitched battle deployment, no reserves either side, and he let me go first.

 

Turn one I immobilized a Rhino, a Vindicator, and his Land Raider. Furioso podded in. By turn three I was rolling along pretty good, controlling two objectives and pincering the rest of his force:

http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y201/Escaflowne_Z/IMG_0115.jpg

 

Turn 5 he decided to unload his squad of doom from the LRC. They started marching across the table and started devastating everything in their path. They massacred Tycho and the veterans, finished off my TAS, assaulted my Land Raider, ripping off a sponson and stunning it. All of which was fine, until we rolled for game length and a seventh turn was played. That one thing let his Deathwing squad assault into and kill off my combat squad holding the carnifex objective. And, since he had Belial, that squad was a troop choice, turning an easy win for me into a stunning come from behind victory for him.

 

http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y201/Escaflowne_Z/IMG_0116.jpg

 

Was a fun, friendly game all around, and had plenty of ridiculous dice rolling on both sides. For instance, my Furioso's heavy flamer doing serious damage to armor 11 targets, TWICE. Or his terminators surviving the veterans' poisoned bolters, Tycho's combimelta, and the pair of heavy flamers without a scratch. Still, I am 3 wins and one loss with them, so no complaints whatsoever! :cuss

 

To summarize my thoughts: I have now tried every unit I am interested in from the new codex, and I can say that I am very pleased with the book as a whole for flavor, balance, and versatility. Having seen how BA change from 3rd to 4th to 5th, I can say that this is the best army list we have ever had.

 

Veterans are good, no matter which kind you take. Sternguard fill a perfect role for the way I tend to build my lists, and Vanguards are spectacular, especially if there happens to be a locater beacon around. Descent of Angels rocks for these guys.

 

Sanguinary Priests are our own little Rezz Orbs, and are great. Very useful, and it was a difficult decision to not use them in this game, as I really wanted to use my TAS for the first time in four years.

 

Furioso's, like all vehicles, tend to be either really bad, or really great. This game he was great, eating a Vindicator, a Rhino, and a tactical squad before he finally died, armless and immobilized, on turn 7. Next game he'll be rolling with a set of Blood Talons to test those out.

 

Baal Predators and Vindicators are both good choices, and run the exact same points cost generally.

 

Death Company (all of mine are jump equipped), are as good as ever, but must now be used very carefully. More expensive, but harder to control now too. I love the fact that they are finally truly optional for us.