Blood Angels vs. Chaos Daemons

[BigBaals]

Blood Angels vs. Chaos Daemons

2,000 Points

 

Blood Angels:

Librarian Unleash/Shield

Priest

Chaplain

Assault Squad: Flm/PW, Razorback/AC

Assault Squad: Flm/PW, Razorback/AC

Assault Squad: MG/PW, Razorback/LC

Tactical Squadx10: LC, Flm, PF, Rhino

Vangaurd Vet x6: Pair of LC, PW, PF

Baal Pread: AC/HB

Baal Pread: AC/HB

Vindicator

Preadator: AC/LC sponsons

Preadator: AC/LC sponsons

 

 

Chaos Daemons (something to this affect)

Fateweaver

Bloodthirster

Blood Crushers x5

Blood Crushers x5

Pink Horrors x5 (Bolt)

Pink Horrors x5 (Bolt)

Pink Horrors x4: Changeling (Bolt)

Daemon Prince of Tzeentch: Wings, Flame Template power, Bolt

Daemon Prince of Tzeentch: Wings, Flame Template power, Bolt

 

Table Quarters & Kill Points

 

 

Chaos Daemon Turn 1

 

I give him turn one, and keep everything in reserve. On his turn one, his good half comes in. I think it was something like 2 Pink Horror squads (wich changeling in one), Blood Crushers x1, a Daemone Prince, and Fateweaver. He drops down about 6” from the center, towards my table edge. Everything of his surrounds Fateweaver, no major deviations. He runs a bit to make sure everything is within 6” of big bird.

 

Blood Angels Turn 1

 

I start rolling for reserves. This would be the best rolling all game. Everything except the Tactical Squad inside the rhino, and an Assault Cannon Razorback comes in. Everything comes in on the southeast table corner. I figure I should put what I’m willing to lose closest to him since I know I’m going to lose things early on. The AC/LC Pread is closest to his horde of evil. Next to it is another AC/LC Pread. Then both Baal’s. An AC Razor moves with those, and the Vindicator takes the right table edge. Everything will be able to fire. Finally, with my last Razorback, I get a bright idea! I’m going to tank shock those damn Bloodcrushers so that they get out of that 6” Fateweaver bubble. My LC Razor does just that. He doesn’t Death Or Glory, and 2 Squads of Pink Horrors move closer to Fateweaver, but the Bloodcrushers move out of range of Fateweaver! Shooting commences, all but 1 bloodcrusher dies, and it has 1 wound left. It took my entire army to do it. Bad news.

 

TURN 2

More pink horrors come down, another daemon prince, and more bloodcrushers come in, bloodthirster stays in reserve. The daemon prince drops down, scatters 12” back from the horde of daemons to the northwest corner. It wont matter. The bloodcrushers drop in about the same spot where the rest of the bloodcrushers were before I shot them to death. Pink horrors try to pop my Razor on 3 sides with the ST8… nothing. Fateweaver and a daemon prince move towards my Mech corner and immobilize one AC/LC Preadator. He assaults it with a daemon prince, and it blows up. The lone bloodcrusher assaults the razorback, wrecks it. Priest and gang pile out.

 

Blood Angel Turn 2

Vangaurd come in. I try to drop them about 5” from two squads of Pink Horrors. I scatter 4”… 6 squad members straight towards a Pink Horror squad. Mishap. Roll a 2. Well, those were useless this game. The Tactical squad also comes in to the left of his large horde, moves 12”, and they pop out of there rhino to rapid fire the Pink Horrors that my Vangaurd just landed on. Kill 3 of 5. More shooting from me sees most of his bloodcrushers die to Vindicator/Baal/AC Razor shots. It takes most of my army to kill that squad. Not good. The assault squad that were forced from the Razor (in the middle of his horde) assault some pink horrors, kill all but one. They pile around it.

 

TURN 3

A daemon prince flies at the Tactical squad. Assaults, kills 4… takes no wounds in return. They run away, he consolidates towards me… I go ahead and take them off the board since that’s where they were headed anyway. The Tac squad took out 3 Pink Horrors… great job guys. More Monstrous Creature action sees a Baal loose an AC, another AC/LC Pread blows up, and a shot from some pink horrors sees my LC/Razor wrecked. The Librarian and RAS come out. The lone bloodcrusher with 1 wound left hits my Priest/RAS and kills 1 Marine. I kill his remaining pink horror in return.. and pile around the Bloodcrusher. This was about the time I called the game. Can’t win them all! The next game was a Chaos Daemon Battle Mission. I beat him fairly handily that time. I can post that BATREP if anyone’s interested.

 

BLOOD ANGELS: 2 KP

CHAOS DAEMONS: 7 KP

 

Blood Angels Loose!

 

Lessons Learned: I’ve tried shooting up Fateweaver in the past, and it didn’t pan out. This time I realized quickly that I would have to take losses and put my most expendable units closest to the Daemon Horde. It seemed to work for what it’s worth. The Vindicator was a real winner this game, as it forced 5++ saves on the Bloodcrushers without re-rolls when paired with the Tank Shock Tactic I used. The more I play, the more I’m realizing that there isn’t a unit in the codex that doesn’t need support in some form or fashion. There are no lone rangers in my Blood Angel Battle plan. My Batman needs a Nightwing.

[bulley]

Sounds like some bad rolling.

 

I have to say I am really not a fan of reserving all mech vs another reserved army.

 

In the first turn he'll only have half his force down, which gives you a chance to just concentrate on 1 thing and it not be a big issue as say a turn 3 firing everything to drop 1 squad.

 

I do like your army list though, losing that VV to a mishap is horrible luck, and can be a back breaker right there sometimes.

[BLACK BLΠFLY]

I am confused as you stated the mission was table quarters but sounds like you used the DoW deployment. Was this from the rulebook?

 

0b :)

[BigBaals]

Yeah that's my fault. The game didn't really start until Turn 2 since I kept everything in reserve. I hate to reserve everything like that, but I don't think it lost me the game since nearly everything came on turn 2 anyway. What lost the game for me was a block of Daemons around Fateweaver and it taking my entire army over two turns to kill 10 bloodcrushers. That's how it goes though. I either win big against Daemons, or lose big!

[Kanis]

Trying to stay on topic related, but a friend is starting up Daemons, and he's the best player in our group. After reading this battle report, it's honestly alarming at what can be brought and how hard it is to kill them. Since you've fought them, what Blood Angels units, or tactics would you recommend to combat them?

[bulley]

What did you feel led to your demise matey? Did bad rolls give it away or were there any glaring mistakes of "if I did that again, I wouldnt do that ..."

[BLACK BLΠFLY]

I think it was a mistake to start in reserve. You want everything on the table at the start so you can bring as much shooting to bare as possible. I also think your army just has a bad matchup versus this particular daemon list. It took all your shooting to kill both squads of Crushers over two turns. You don't really have much of a threat versus him in assault either. Your main strength is your mobility. You can outmaneuver most of his army except for the Fateweaver and the two princes. I doubt he would move up the the Fateweaver unsupported by the rest of his army. So I would have focused fire on the two princes first. You can easily play keep away from the Blood Crushers. Sucks to have to play keep away but Fateweaver and Blood Crushers are a tough combination to tackle - even IG is not going to be able to shoot it all away in two turns.

 

0b :)

[BLACK BLΠFLY]

Also it was really bad luck your VV mishapped as this was your only real assault unit. If you have a rematch I'd use them to snipe at Fateweaver if possible.

[BigBaals]

If I had to do it all again, I would keep everything in reserve again. The table quarter he gave me was NOT friendly to a Mech army that needed to move around the table. It would have given me two avenues and all tanks would have had to form a conga line to move out of it. It's a snow themed table and that particular corner is mostly a large hill, with a larger hill in the middle of it. He would have Deep Struck half his army in front of one route out, the other half in front of the other route. One bad dangerous terrain test, and I would have blocked my own escape route. I feel like I made the right choice. Daemons are just one of those armies that when they work, they work. I beat the Chaos out of him the next game. I'll post up that BATREP later on. If I remember correctly I choose to aim at the Pink Horrors with my VV as a distraction method, hoping that he would aim a portion of his army at them after seeing the LC/PW/PF clean them up. That would have allowed my tanks to get free from the Daemon Prince/Fateweaver. That didn't pan out, so for what it's worth that scatter dice roll is the only one that hurt me.

 

I agree completely that the best way to beat Daemons is stay moving and mobile (as you'll see in the next BATREP). You have to be prepared to loose units though. His Daemon Princes have wings for an 18" assault range, and most Daemon Players that are given turn 1 will drop in the middle of the table if there opponent starts in reserve. When using Fateweaver you can bank that they will horde up around Fateweaver to weather any shooting for a turn or two. What could I have done to win? My dice were average, the Vindicator above average. The Vanguard would have been nice. Keeping everything in reserve only kept a single assault cannon and 10 TAC Marines off the table, so that might have killed the last Bloodcrusher before it assaulted my Priest/Assault Squad, but I only lost one marine from that. Honestly I'd do it all again nearly the same way and hope for a better Scatter Roll with my VV. Fateweaver/Daemon Prince were going to hit my lines either way.

[BLACK BLΠFLY]

Well I've played against fatecrusher armies a lot and what I've learned is it's best to start with everything on the table. Its cool you can hold units in reserve though. Most people I know play it you can bring them anywhere you wish along your long board edge - maybe that would have helped a bit. Like I said I would have focused fire on the daemon princes first since they are the fastest and biggest threats to your treads. I've found that by moving away from the fatecrusher blob invariably their faster units will move ahead and split off from the main force - that makes them easier to target while keeping a safe distance from the rest. Also Dozer blades are dirt cheap - gotta take those for a tread heavy list. :)

 

0b :)

[BigBaals]

Blood Angels vs. Chaos Daemons ROUND 2!

2,000 Points

 

Blood Angels:

Librarian Unleash/Shield

Priest

Chaplain

Assault Squad: Flm/PW, Razorback/AC

Assault Squad: Flm/PW, Razorback/AC

Assault Squad: MG/PW, Razorback/LC

Tactical Squadx10: LC, Flm, PF, Rhino

Vangaurd Vet x6: Pair of LC, PW, PF

Baal Pread: AC/HB

Baal Pread: AC/HB

Vindicator

Preadator: AC/LC sponsons

Preadator: AC/LC sponsons

 

 

Chaos Daemons

Fateweaver

Bloodthirster

Blood Crushers x5

Blood Crushers x5

Pink Horrors x5 (Bolt)

Pink Horrors x5 (Bolt)

Pink Horrors x4: Changeling (Bolt)

Daemon Prince of Tzeentch: Wings, Flame Template power, Bolt

Daemon Prince of Tzeentch: Wings, Flame Template power, Bolt

 

We choose to do a Battle Mission this game. We rolled for it, but after last games beatdown (of me!) we wanted something really fresh that we hadn’t done before… so my roll was discarded and we just picked one of the Chaos Daemon missions. I don’t know what it was called, but I’ll try to explain it. It’s an Objective mission, everything of mine had to start on the table. The table is divided into 4 sectors in the shape of triangles in which the tips of the triangles meet in the middle of the table. The north table edge was sector 1, the east was sector 2, south sector 3, and west sector 4. On a roll of 5/6 I could choose what sector that unit would deploy in. I was pretty excited since this was something new and made me want to buy the Battle Mission book.

 

One more thing: The ENTIRE game is played using NIGHT FIGHTING!!!

 

Our 4 objectives get placed on the west side of the south sector, the north side of north sector, towards the center of the table in the east sector, and dead center of the table.

 

 

BLOOD ANGELS TURN 1

I start rolling: Vangauard Vets are the only unit in North Sector 1. East Sector 2 ended up getting my Vindicator, AC/Razor with Librarian, and a AC/LC Preadator. South Sector 3 got the LC/Razor with Priest, 2 Baal Preadators, and the Tactical Squad. West Sector 4 was only a AC/Razor with Chaplain and RAS, and the other AC/LC Pread. Everything in my South/East sectors are setup towards the boundary that they share. The Vanguard are placed near the center, and the West Sector stays back a ways, keeping there rear armor against some hills. Imagine a bunch of red Blood Angels tanks in a circle around the table, aimed at the center where a cool looking Daemon themed objective with Pentagram is placed.

 

CHAOS DAEMON TURN 1

He rolls and gets his preferred side. Fateweaver, 1 Bloodcrusher, 2 Pink Horror squads, and 1 Daemon Princes. The mission rules dictate that he does the same thing I did. Fateweaver ends up in South Sector 3 with nothing around it to protect. Both Pink Horrors get the east sector and land on an objective. Both Daemon Princes get the far west sector with almost no where to land that isn’t dangerous terrain. They land find. The bloodcrushers scatter badly between my tanks, he rolls a 2 on the mishap table, and they all die. He does some shooting with his Daemon Princes and it does nothing to the AC/LC Pread or the Razorbacks that are in those sectors with them due to night fighting. Fateweaver does his shooting at 3 different tanks, and does nothing. The pink horrors aim at the vindicator, and miss, but the other squad shuts up a Razorback for a turn.

 

BLOOD ANGELS TURN 2

I maneuver to let out my 10 man Tactical Squad so that they can see Fateweaver and the Pink Horror squad in case Fateweaver bites the dust early. The Vangaurd jump to the Pink Horrors, but stay about 5” back in case of bad scatter from the Vindicator. My LC/Razor with Priest moves towards the pink horrors to confer FNP/FC to the VV when they assault. Both west sector Pread and Razor move 12” towards the middle of the table. Shooting sees Fateweaver die. I had to do all 3 wounds, as he passed his leadership tests, and it took nearly all of my shooting so I resign myself to loosing at least one of the two West Sector tanks. The Vindicator hits the Pink Horrors dead center and kill 2 of them. Damn natural 4++!! The Vangaurd assault, and eat the other 3 in that squad. One more squad of Pink horrors near my Tank-Turtle and my Tactical Squad and VV are out for the taking. Crap.

 

CHAOS DAEMON TURN 2

His Bloodthirster gets East Sector 2. Scatters badly, mishaps, and he rolls a 1. Bloodthirster dead. Pink Horrors come in and land on the farthest West objective. Another Daemon prince gets the West Sector behind my Razor/Pread nearby. His Pink Horrors shoot my TAC squad, I lose one. This time his Daemon Prince sees my Razorback and pops it. The Chaplain and RAS get out. He knows that squad is dead so he assaults my TACs, and the Pink Horrors loose 3. No Losses on my side. He takes his armor saves, passes them all. Still locked in combat for control of the objective (although I had it as almost my entire army was sitting on it.. The Daemon Prince assaults the Chappy and RAS, killing the entire RAS Squad and taking no wounds in return. Chappy actually passes his leadership and they stay in combat.

 

BLOOD ANGEL TURN 3

Shuffle Shuffle, objective grabing. Couldn’t see anything to shoot it since his Princes were on the other side of the board and so were his full Squad of Pink Horrors. Assaults see his Pink Horrors finally die and the TACs take the objective. Prince/Chappy assault sees the Chappy take a single wound. My opponent conciedes at this point since we both see I’m going to take at least 2 objectives. The only way he could have prevented this would be to have killed my Chaplain and rolled the full 6” for consolidation towards my line of tanks that would have shot him to death. The other Daemon Prince was too far back.

 

 

BLOOD ANGELS WIN!

 

Lessons Learned: For Daemons, if they can’t get in your face and force critical targeting decisions, or if they lose a major Force Multiplier quickly, they fall apart. His 2 mishaps really hurt him and I think he lost heart after Fateweaver died and he watched his Bloodthirster disappear into the warp. I did everything right this game. The tanks kept moving in case of assault.

 

BLOOD ANGEL MVP: Daemon Scatter Rolls

[BLACK BLΠFLY]

Thanks the dice gods. They were smiling on ya.

 

0b ;)