Blood Angels take second (and third) at local tournament

[JamesI]

My BA finished second, 2 points behind first place at a local tournament.

 

Game 1 was annihilation against Demon hunters, which I got a minor victory and 1 bonus point. At the end, all my opponent had left was 2 Land Raiders, I don't remember exactly what I had, but that opponent writes good bat reps, so I'll link to that when it appears.

 

Game 2 was 5 objectives against Nidzilla, I got a major victory (and all 4 possible bonus points), taking 3 objectives (all but 1 on the last turn). I ended up kind of hanging back, my assault marines circling up to hit his weaker elements, while the vindicators/bikes/speeder/razor shot down and killed 2 fexes, a trygon, a tyrant, tyranid prime, and several gaunts.

 

Game 3 was another annihilation against razorspam Blood Angels (for some reason we had 2 victory points games today). This one also gave bonus points for Kill points (to give someone who was behind a chance to catch up was the reasoning by the TO, plus he wanted to do something different.) The victory points ended in a tie, but I picked up 15 Kill points, which was enough to move me from 3rd to 2nd (though since the person in second lost his last game, I probably would have passed him anyway). Only 10 models survived this game (I had a sergeant survive, 1 vindicator, the rhino with no weapons, and 2 attack bikes, he had a wounded librarian, a wounded Corbulo, 2 sergeants, and a drop pod)

 

 

In the BA game, dice were really odd. We had a combat that was 18 assault marines of mine (1 fist, 1 power weapon) and Astorath, and Corbulo and a sanguinary priest with power weapon and 2 attack bikes against 10 assault marines (2 fists) Corbulo and a librarian. I was wiped out, he had 4 guys survive. Later, I hit him with 8 wounds that ignore armor (krak missiles, vindicator shells) he made every single 4+ cover save.

 

My list was

Astorath

Corbulo

Sanguinary Priest, jump pack, power weapon

10 assault marines, 2 meltas, fist

10 assault marines, 2 meltas thunder hammer

8 assault marines, power weapon, flamer, rhino (corbulo went with them)

5 assault marines, power weapon, melta, razorback, twin-lascannon

2 vindicators, dozers

2x2 attack bikes, multimeltas

Land Speeder, heavy bolter, typhoon missiles.

 

The mech BA list came in 3rd, a pure bike list Ultras army won the event.

[Joasht]

Awesome list, something I'd personally lean towards. Curious, anything you would have done differently?

[JamesI]

well, had I known we would only have 1 objective mission, I wouldn't have taken the extra scoring unit. I had decided in playtesting I needed more scoring models, but then in the event I didn't need them.

[JamesI]

my best esitimate of the other BA list at the event is this (sure I'll forget something or make some errors, I don't have a copy of the exact list)

 

2 Librarians, both with unleash rage, shield of sanguinius.

sanguinary priest, power weapon

corbulo

2 Furiosos, blood talons, magna grapples, extra armor, heavy flamer, drop pods.

4x 5 RAS, meltagun, power fist, razorback with twin assault cannon

3 Baal preds, heavy bolters, assault cannons.

 

I think all the vehilces had dozer blades.

[Marshal Wilhelm]

You didn't bring much long range shooting. Do you think that hindered you much?

 

I cannot see the points value anywhere.

 

The Bike list, how do you feel you'd have gone against them? Did he do anything amazing or it just worked out that way?

[Deus_Sanguinius]

Congratulation on your 2nd Place James! How did Brother Corbulo work? A good investment or would be a regular SP more effective?

[Morticon]

Very well done matey!!! A good showing!

[JamesI]

You didn't bring much long range shooting. Do you think that hindered you much?

 

I cannot see the points value anywhere.

 

The Bike list, how do you feel you'd have gone against them? Did he do anything amazing or it just worked out that way?

The bike list is one of my regular opponents, and we usually have good games. I'm not really sure what he did, I got to see most of his last game against Orks, but didn't see any of his previous ones. I think he was the only player to win all 3 of his games (I got 2 wins and a draw, though the Kill Points bonus turned that into a win for me too)

 

The lack of long range shooting wasn't a big deal, except against the Grey Knights were I couldn't hurt the land raiders.

 

The event was 1850 points.

 

Congratulation on your 2nd Place James! How did Brother Corbulo work? A good investment or would be a regular SP more effective?

Not sure Corbulo was worth it. He only made 1 save all event. The reroll let me kill a furioso (missed with a meltagun, rerolled it, killed the dread) and stop a horrible scatter with a vindicator shot. Had I had a regular priest, he would have had a jump pack and power weapon, not saving many points.

 

Very well done matey!!! A good showing!

 

Thanks!

 

 

Despite his not being an Eternal Warrior, Astorath only died once (to a Powerfist against the other BA player). Corbulo only survived one game (against the Nids).

[River Black]

What did the bike army look like?

[Demoulius]

grats on the 2nd spot james :rolleyes:

[brgerkng]

what did the bike list looks like?

 

captain (bike, relic blade)

librarian (bike, avenger, null zone)

command squad (company champ, vet w/meltagun, powerfist, storm shield, company standard, vet w/powerfist, vet w/lightning claw, meltagun, storm shield)

bike squad (5 bikes, powerfist, 2 meltaguns, multi melta attack bike)

2x bike squad (5 bikes, powerfist, 2 plasmaguns, multi melta attack bike)

bike squad (4 bikes, 2 flamers, multi melta attack bike)

3x attack bike squad (2 multi melta attack bikes)

 

You didn't bring much long range shooting. Do you think that hindered you much?

 

I cannot see the points value anywhere.

 

The Bike list, how do you feel you'd have gone against them? Did he do anything amazing or it just worked out that way?

The bike list is one of my regular opponents, and we usually have good games. I'm not really sure what he did, I got to see most of his last game against Orks, but didn't see any of his previous ones. I think he was the only player to win all 3 of his games (I got 2 wins and a draw, though the Kill Points bonus turned that into a win for me too)

 

 

Actually, I'm pretty sure James has taken apart this list whenever we play. I don't think I've won or even drawn, although my Tau army did really well the one time he's played it.

 

The rundown of my games:

 

Game one was against a mechanized chaos marine army. Fabius Bile, 5 squads of marines with metlagun, combi metla and Fabius upgrade and 3 vindicators. Regular in the group but my first game against him. He admitted that it was more of a fun list for him. I think it was the 4th turn I took minimal damage and he had a few rhinos and one vindicator left. He conceded the game instead of playing the last turn or two.

 

Game two was against the mech BA list James described. Over the first few turns I was able to run along one board side and take out 3 of his squads (including corbulo and the librarians) and their transports. I forget how much damage he did to me early game, I don't think it was that much. Mid/late he starts shooting up guys, and one of his dreads charges and kills my captain, libby and command squad in one assault phase (yes, nearly 650 pts in 3 minutes). After this both dreads are promptly destroyed. On his last turn he has one of his troop squads sitting in a razorback on a objective, and moves both baal predators to sit and contest a objective each. He does not have anyone on the two other objectives, but only one is within my movement range. On my movement I turbo boost one of my attack bikes to contest the objective is on, I move one of my squads to capture a unguarded objective, and the remaining handfull of bikes to surround one of the baal predators. In shooting I fail to do anything to the pred, in assault I charge and manage to destroy it with my powerfist. I win with 2 objectives to his 0.

 

Game three was against orks. His list was pretty much Gazguhll 6 full (or nearly full) boyz squads, 6 warbikers and 3 meganobs. He has around 180 models to my 36, and I am not looking forward to it. Dawn of war deployment with victory points as the win condition. He puts 60 boyz plus Gazguhll along the middle of the board. First turn he moves those orks up, and has everything march onto the table. My first turn I move all of my bikes within a foot of one side of the board and have multiple squads assault one of the squads and between my assault phase and his the squad is destroyed and I lose 4 or so bikes, his movement the horde moves closer to my army. My turn I shoot and destroy the meganobs, shoot the warbikers and force them to flee under half-strength. I use multiple squads to assault a boyz squad that is within range. Between my turn 2 and his turn 3 assault phase I destroy the squad but I start to lose some more bikes. His turn 3 he moves ever closer, but at this point he has orks in going through cover so he will be getting cover saves and limiting me from assaulting him. His squads are also closer to each other so even if I approach and take out one the other one will catch me. At this point I've done better than expected, and managed to use my movement to take out lone squads far enough from the rest of his force to avoid retaliation, but I still have over 100 orks making their way towards me....

 

I move bikes to shoot one of the squads in cover but fail to do much damage. His next turn he uses his Waggh to have that squad assault 2 of my troop squads. I lose the combat but fail to break away. My turn 4 I charge some guys in to bail the rest out, but I lose a lot of bikes in the process, including my captain and all but one member of the command squad. His turn 5 he moves closer, but fails to pull off an assault. My turn 5 and because of time we know after this we're done. James is long done with his game, and we all know that even though I am winning my game at the moment, its not by enough points to beat James in the standings. I unload all of my firepower into a squad of 28 or so boyz plus Gazguhll. After the libby with avenger, 2 flamers, and a lot of bolter fire only Gazguhll and the nob remains. He takes his leadership check, fails, and then fails on the re-roll via the bosspole and flees. The points I gain from this push me enough in the standings to take first.

[BLACK BLΠFLY]

Great job James ! Congrats on placing high. I like your list, it seems to be a great combination of jump units and mech.

 

:wub:

 

0b

[JamesI]

what did the bike list looks like?

 

captain (bike, relic blade)

librarian (bike, avenger, null zone)

command squad (company champ, vet w/meltagun, powerfist, storm shield, company standard, vet w/powerfist, vet w/lightning claw, meltagun, storm shield)

bike squad (5 bikes, powerfist, 2 meltaguns, multi melta attack bike)

2x bike squad (5 bikes, powerfist, 2 plasmaguns, multi melta attack bike)

bike squad (4 bikes, 2 flamers, multi melta attack bike)

3x attack bike squad (2 multi melta attack bikes)

I'm glad you posted the list, I would have gotten some stuff wrong from memory. I've never faced this verision with the librarian, but other than that it seems pretty much the same (I don't recall the lightning claw in the command squad, I think that is new too).

 

If things had gone just slightly different, we would have been playing in the finals (the Orks were a few points ahead of me for second at that point).

[Brother Nihm]

Nice show but it begs the question, who took 1st place? ;)

[JamesI]

Part of me is considering squeezing a librarian back into the list. That would have helped me in every game (except possibly the demon hunters one), if for nothing else then the psychic hood.

 

Not sure how I would do it other than removing Corbulo, but I really like having 2 sources of FNP, plus backup for when the red thirst abandons me. (game 1, every unit but 1 fell to the red thirst, game 2 only one unit fell to the red thirst, game 3 was 3 units).

[JamesI]

Nice show but it begs the question, who took 1st place? ;)

brgerking's Ultramarines. The list is posted higher in this thread.

 

The event had:

 

2 Codex marines players (the ultras bikes and a Vulkan list).

2 Blood Angels

1 Ork player

1 Nid player

1 Demon hunters player.

1 Chaos marine player

1 Eldar player.

[Brother Nihm]

Missed the last part, thanks!

 

That's a pretty decent spread of armies as well.

[BLACK BLΠFLY]

James I think you can get by fine without a Librarian. The inclusion of a psychic hood is always helpful in a tournament though.

 

0b :wub:

[Wildfire]

Congrats, James. If I may ask, how do you like Astorath?

[JamesI]

I've been pleased with Astorath. The Red Thirst on 1-3 is very helpful, and my bad luck with Red Thirst rolls was the main reason I put Astorath in my list. But the best benefit hasn't been improved Red Thirst. I found with a reclusiarch the biggest problem was wounding marines with strength 4 when I wasn't on the charge. Astorath's axe is great (and occasionally that reroll invul saves against it is really good). Also his aritificer armor makes it easy to stick wounds on him.

 

Most of the time (my last game at the tournament not included in this), he gets into combat and he kills stuff. When I got into combat with some of the Nid larger creatures, his being strength 6 was essential to taking them out.

[Terrahawk]

Congrats, well done! :lol:

 

Reading this is giving me the inspiration to give good ol' Astorath a run myself, I didn't remember he had artificer armour in addition to all the other goodies.

 

Also, interesting to see biker Ultras take the first place, it goes to show that C:SM still does pack a good punch.

[Wildfire]

I didn't realize he was S6. I'll have to look over his entry in the 'dex again when I get home.

[Joasht]

I didn't realize he was S6. I'll have to look over his entry in the 'dex again when I get home.

Yeah but only three attacks....

[JamesI]

I didn't realize he was S6. I'll have to look over his entry in the 'dex again when I get home.

Yeah but only three attacks....

That's the one drawback to Astorath. But WS6, S6 and on the charge can be I6 and reroll hits, its pretty good.