Blood Angels Batrep 2k

[BigBaals]

I’ve been struggling against other marines, so I jumped at the chance to play our resident Vanilla Marine player. This is my first batrep, and it's from memory. It should be fairly correct though.

 

My List:

Mephiston

Honor Guard: Priest, MG/SS,MG/SS,PW/SS,PF/SS

Priest: PW

Terminator Squad (tactical): Assault Cannon

Assault Squad: PW, MG, Razor w/ Assault Cannon

Assault Squad: PW, MG, Razor w/ Assault Cannon

Assault Squad: PW, Flm, Razor w/ Lascannon

Assault Squad x10: PF, MGx2

Attack Bike x3 (separate units)

Devastator Squad: ML x4

Vindicator

 

His List (don’t know Vanilla well):

 

Chapter Master: Jump Pack, Thunderhammer, Storm Shield

Chapter Master: Two handed master-crafted PW, Storm Shield

Terminators w/ TH SSx4 & LCx1

Ironclad in Drop Pod w/ Deathwind ML

Tactical Squad: Flm, MM, PF

Tactical Squad: MG, ML, PF, Razor w/ LC & Twin-linked Plasma

Tactical Squad: PG, LC, PF

Vindicator

Vindicator

Preadator TLLC, HB sponsons, Cronos

 

 

SETUP AND MISSION

 

Table Quarters, 2 Objectives

 

He rolls and takes first turn, sets one objective about halfway up the board and 12” from the middle in his deployment zone in some ruins. I set the other objective in the table quarter next to him about 15” from the other objective in some ruins.

 

He combat squads all of his tactical with ML squad on his objective, the LC in a building in his quarter, Cronos’ Preadator to the far right, both Vindicators as close to the center as possible. The MM combat squad posted close to the other objective for a first turn run to hold it. 1 combat squad went with a chapter master in his razorback, and the other 2 with assault weapons stood packed between and around his dual vindicators. His jump pack chapter master was posted behind Crono’s Pread. Drop Pod Dread would come on turn 1, and the termi’s were in reserve.

 

I set my devastators in a building in the back of my deployment zone. My attack bikes, vindicator, and honor guard posted up 19” from my center, preventing his vindicators from reaching anything on turn one. Honor guard went behind the vindicator. The AC Razors posted left to take his left flank and move in closer to his Razor and combat squad that would move to objective 2. Mephiston stood behind these 2 with the 10 man Assault Squad for moving cover. All out of range of his vindicators. My terminators went in reserve also.

Red Thirst Rolls saw my Assault Cannon Razor squad without priest get it, and an Attack Bike. That would make a difference later!

 

TURN 1, I SEIZE THE INITIATIVE!

 

My vindicator moves up 12” aiming for his line of two vindicators and two combat squads. It fires, and a vindicator blows up, taking a marine with it. Two attack bikes follow my vindicator to shoot his other vindicator. They fire and land a Can’t Move or Shoot. Good enough. The honor guard jumps to the right along with an attack bike with intent to take care of Crono’s. The devastators fire at Crono’s, and do nothing. The LC Razor fires and now Crono’s can’t shoot. My AC razorbacks move up the left flank, mephiston, and the 10 man squad move up behind them. They fire the assault cannons into his MM carrying combat squad killing all but a single bolter carrying marine. Couldn’t ask for much more

 

The drop pod comes down and the Ironclad is now 1” from my 2 razorbacks. It misses when firing at a razorback. His turn one sees his jump pack chapter master move up my right flank into some terrain. His 2 combat squads near his vindicator move forward and straight up the middle. His razorback moves and fires it’s LC, wrecking the AC Razor with the priest inside. The disembark onto some area terrain immediately in front of the dreadnought . His vindicator shoots at mine, and blows it up, doing no wounds to the FNP honor guard behind it. Nothing else of his does anything for that turn.

At the end of the turn I’ve lost a vindicator and a Razorback, and he’s lost a vindicator and about 5 marines total. But only his Razor can shoot on turn 2. He controls both objectives, but only 1 marine is holding the objective closest to my razorbacks. The other objective is held by his ML combat squad.

 

TURN 2

 

Terminators don’t come in. I try to jump towards his Razor/Chapter Master but Mephi’s power doesn’t go off. He walks it to the Ironclad instead. The 5 man RAS shoots it’s MG at the ironclad.. miss. Mephiston assaults, both powers kick off, but all he does is rip off an arm and take 2 wounds in return. One attack bike goes for Crono’s and rips off the Lascannon. The other attack bike goes for the Vindicator along with the Honor Guard and it gets immobilized. They all assault the vindi, blowing it up and taking no wounds in return. The Red Thirst Attack bike’s extra ST helped! The 10 man RAS moves towards his Razor, hoping to crack it, no luck. Devastators destroy 3 marines with missiles, and they run.

 

His turn 2 sees his terminators show up in his deployment zone between both objectives and they spread out. His jump pack chapter master leaps between my two attack bikes, and a combat squad with ML attempts to kill one of them… and misses. The chapter master assaults the attack bike and destroys it utterly but he was unable to consolidate into any cover. His other chapter master and squad jump from there razorback and assault my 10 man assault squad, taking them down to almost nothing. They tend to be nothing more than a speed bump, a disheartening trend with almost every single game I play using variants on this list. His combat squads with assault weapons shoot at an attack bike and the honor guard, doing one wound to the attack bike. Nothing else does much. Mephiston and the dread continue to fight, and the dread’s other arm is ripped off, and it’s immobilized.

 

He controls 1 objective, no one is on the other objective.

 

TURN 3

 

My terminators come down, mishap, and get put in the farthest corner away from anything. The devastators and terminators are virtually useless this entire game. My lascannon pread takes a potshot at his jump pack chapter master. He fails the 3++, and the chapter master disappears. The devastators kill a couple marines. Mephiston takes off the hunter killer missile. My damage table results were awful. The remaining assault cannon Razor moved away from the remaining chapter master that was locked in combat, and took some pot shots at the combat squads near the center of the table, don’t think there were any casualties this time. The 5 man assault squad with priest decides Mephiston needs more time to take care of ol’ Ironclad, and assaults into the chapter master. No wounds on the chapter master, a few marines die, combat continues. Honor guard and attack bike move towards the uncontested/unheld objective and out of assault range of his assault terminators.

 

His turn 3 starts and Cronos’ Pread shoots up the honor guard, along with some rapid fire from the combat squad that’s holding his objective, missile launcher, and plasma gun rapid fire. They all die even with FNP. The attack bike dies to a lascannon shot I think. That was the extent of his shooting. The honor guard took out a vindicator and took a lot of fire. Good enough. Mephiston finally blows up the Dreadnaught and consolidates towards the chapter master. The chapter master finally kills off the final bits of the assault squads and the priest is left in combat with Mephiston coming in for support.

 

TURN 4

 

Mephiston leaps into action and into combat with the chapter master. Transfixing gaze goes off.. re-rolling hits and wounds now. ST 10 power goes off… looking good so far. Iinitiave 8 with furious charge… and the chapter master bites the dust. Both priest and Mephi are in range for his Las/Plas razor though. They move towards the objective. The AC Razor boosts over to the objective and pops smoke. The Lascannon razor boosts straight up the board about 16” away from the objective that my opponent holds and pops smoke. The devastator squad does nothing. The terminators do nothing.

 

His turn 4 beings, and he moves the razor, takes a couple shots at Mephiston, and he’s now down to 2 wounds. He takes some bolter shots at the priest, FNP FTW! His terminators assault the razorback on my objective, destroying the assault cannon. Surprisingly that was all they did, but since I moved 18” they needed 6’s to hit.

 

TURN 5/6

 

The priest hops inside the razorback that’s only being assaulted on one side. Mephiston assaults the terminators killing 2 TH/SS. He chooses to put LC’s and 1 TH/SS against my Razor, and makes sure it can’t shoot… it couldn’t anyway with no weapons. He does no wounds to mephiston that I can remember. Mephiston takes out 1 more terminator. Damn 3++ and my uncanny ability to roll 1’s… My Lascannon razorback boosts 18” to contest his held objective. Devs do nothing, terminators do nothing.

He shoots the razor near his objective with his ML, LC, and Pread… nothing except a can’t shoot. Mephiston takes out the remaining 2 terminators and I now firmly hold 1 objective and contest the other.

 

FINAL TALLY – Blood Angels hold one objective and contest the other! Blood Angels win!

 

Thoughts: My jump pack squad is a consistent speed bump that generally gets plowed over every single game. They fair better in my DoA style lists. The attack bikes have again proven that they are the best fast attack choice for me. The Baals underperform over and over, and the Vanguard are hit and miss. The razorbacks are great and I wouldn’t mind adding a 4th with assault cannon. The Lazorback was fantastic as a long range support ST9 twin linked shooter, and gunning it for the objective contest won the game for me. The priest bubble inside the razorback was awesome of course. I have mixed feelings about the honor guard. They helped remove a vindicator and were a great fire draw. Trading Vindicators early in the game was about as good as my Vindicator has done. Using it as anti-tank has been consistently better than using it as anti-infantry due to cover saves. That’s just my experience. Mephiston was better this game than he has been in others. He took out a chapter master, an Ironclad, and a terminator squad. He couldn’t have taken the chapter master as easily had I not chosen to sacrifice the 5 man assault squad. He made his points back, and he was a good fire draw. The devastators were borderline useless, and the terminators were too. I basically played a game where I brought 1640 and my opponent brought 2k. Thankfully Mephiston was able to knock out 3 major threats.

 

 

Blood Angel MVPs: Mephiston & Attack Bikes.